He Opened the Chat After Years. The Last Message Changed Everything
I found the chat at 11:43 p.m. Buried under years of silence. No profile photo. No recent status. Just a name I hadn’t typed in a long time. I stared at it longer than I should have. We hadn’t spoken in years. Not because we ran out of words — but because we ran out of courage. I told myself I wouldn’t open it. But my finger tapped the screen anyway. The last message was mine. “We’ll talk later.” Later never came. I scrolled up slowly, reading conversations that once meant everything. Inside jokes. Late-night talks. Promises we were too young to understand. I typed. Deleted. Typed again. Deleted again. Finally, I sent one line. “Hey. I hope you’re doing okay.” The message showed Delivered . No reply. Minutes passed. I locked the phone and placed it face down, pretending I didn’t care. At 12:17 a.m., my phone buzzed. “I was wondering when you’d message,” it said. My chest tightened. We didn’t talk about the past. We didn’t apologize. We didn’t explain...