[noun] a small, triangular piece of cartilage that ossifies with age and is the attachment point for several muscles and ligaments
i’m glad you never bought it— that shampoo, that you’d asked me about over christmas, that you’d asked me about more than once. (i dodged the question every time, and i’m sorry) it would’ve gone to waste, anyway— my stay cut short, and your hair soft enough already. i’d know, because i told myself to remember it— with your head on my chest, and my fingers lightly tangled, at the nape of a neck i’d never break. i take one step back, put hand to pull, but you stop me halfway through— you re-zip the jacket, too big for me, too yellow, and yours. a brief palm to my sternum, as if to say— you know it’s soft there, beneath the armour—no, bone— and you’re sorry
This was really touching - I sense the narrator wants to bring their walls down but can’t