I admit there was a time not so long ago when you seemed heaven-sent.

I remember that night I ran into you, and it was a full moon. The moonlight danced on your skin and made you glow — as if you were celestial. I confused you for the angel I always had been praying for. Believe me, I want to remember the good times, but now those memories are tainted with the realization that everything we were built on was a lie. I want to believe your feelings for me were real, but real feelings can't be turned on and off like a light switch.

You became the one person you told me you were afraid of becoming. A knot in my rope of entanglements, a statistic of my past, and just another guy I need to forget. You cheapened the meaning of the words "I love you" and now I will think once, twice, three times before believing it again. When I meet the man who sincerely wants to love me, he will curse your name because of how hard you have made it for him to receive my heart.

As the one who built me up you also knew exactly how to tear me down.

I should have known when you put me on a pedestal, that crashing down from it would be lethal. I could never live up to the fantasy you created of me in your head. Like fire in a fireplace, my love steadily grew over time. I catered to its embers carefully. My love for you was genuine, but I was too blinded by the firework that was you to see that all of your affection for me would appear fantastical but burn out quickly. You left me suffocating in your ashes.

If you thought after leaving me I would return to the broken shards of a woman, you really don't know the woman I am.

Like a rubber band, I will bounce back. I don't need your fire to stay warm because I radiate.

I have always radiated before, during, and after you. You knew me when I was at my lowest, but in a way, I am glad it was me and not some other girl who had to face you because they would have been destroyed. It's better it's me than someone else because I am so used to disappointment. I am strong enough to take your blows. It hurt when you betrayed me, but this isn't my first rodeo.

The moment you decided you could do better than me was the moment I became too good for you. I shed someone who doesn't value me to gain someone who does. You missed out on someone who genuinely cares about you, and I hope it doesn't haunt you. You have left a permanent scar on my heart but I also know how to pick up my own pieces. Everyone appears flattering in moonlight, but not everyone radiates.

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