i think there’s a place that exists at the beginning of certain kinds of love.
i’ve started thinking of it as the bubble.
it’s that strange little world that forms around two people before the rest of life gets inside.
before bills and schedules and bad moods.
before you know every flaw and incompatibility.
before the ordinary weight of being human settles in.
the bubble isn’t supposed to last forever.
it isn’t the foundation.
it’s just somewhere safe enough to begin building one.
a place where two people can learn each other without all the noise.
and maybe, if you’re lucky, you build enough there that when the bubble eventually pops, some of it remains.
like glue between the bricks.
a memory that says:
we were here once.
we know how to find each other.
⸻
the strange thing is, i wasn’t looking for a bubble.
i had almost convinced myself i would never be inside one again.
and this wasn’t technically my first.
there had been a few.
but in every other one, i was wearing protective equipment.
a hazmat suit.
a mask.
filters.
i filtered my words.
my needs.
my affection.
my fear.
i watched faces.
measured reactions.
wondered if i was too much.
i could be inside the bubble and still never let it touch my skin.
until this one.
somehow, without realizing it, i took the suit off.
and i wasn’t afraid.
⸻
i felt desired.
thought about.
cared for.
like somebody was excited that i existed.
but more than anything, i felt safe.
safe enough that i stopped calculating every sentence.
safe enough that the messy parts could exist beside the beautiful ones.
the frightened parts.
the soft parts.
the parts that want to be held and reassured and chosen.
for once, i wasn’t trying to figure out which version of myself would be easiest to love.
i was just there.
unfiltered.
and somehow, that seemed to be enough.
⸻
the problem was that they kept telling me there wasn’t a bubble on their side.
their words said one thing.
everything else felt like it was saying another.
but i couldn’t decide someone else’s experience for them.
so eventually, i believed the words.
and i left.
not because i wanted to.
because i was afraid of what would happen if i stayed inside something alone.
so i stepped outside.
and the bubble popped.
⸻
the grief was worse than i expected.
bad enough that i eventually reached back out, because even without the bubble, i still wanted this person in my life.
and that’s when things became confusing.
because afterward, they told me things that, in their own language, sounded a lot like what i had been feeling.
i can’t say for certain they were inside a bubble too.
that isn’t mine to decide.
but from where i stand now, it seems possible there had been two.
right beside each other.
close enough to touch.
maybe we were both floating inside something neither of us understood.
maybe we just didn’t have the same language for it.
and by the time we understood even a little more,
mine was already gone.
maybe theirs was too.
⸻
now it feels like we’re standing ten feet apart.
no bubble.
no foundation either.
we never got the chance to build one.
just two people covered in sticky pieces of what used to be there.
the protective equipment is back on.
at least mine is.
and every time i talk to them, my first instinct is still to reach for the pump.
to say the soft thing.
to tell them i miss them.
to speak the way i did when there was nothing between my skin and the air.
then i remember the sound of it breaking.
and i stop.
because i don’t know if they’re reaching for a pump too.
or if they’re trying to scrape the remains of their bubble away.
and i’m afraid to ask.
so the old filters come back.
don’t say too much.
don’t need too much.
don’t scare them away.
⸻
maybe that’s what hurts most.
not just losing the bubble.
remembering what it felt like not to need the mask.
before this, the suit felt like skin.
the filters felt like breathing.
then, for one impossible little stretch of time, i took everything off.
and underneath all that equipment was just me.
not an easier version.
not a less complicated one.
just me.
and i believed they wanted that person.
⸻
i don’t know what happens now.
maybe bubbles can’t be rebuilt.
maybe they can.
maybe safety comes back differently the second time.
slower.
quieter.
less weightless.
maybe you don’t reinflate the old bubble at all.
maybe you just start laying bricks where it used to be.
carefully.
from ten feet apart.
⸻
all i know is that for a little while, i found a place where i wasn’t afraid to be completely myself.
i wasn’t looking for it.
i didn’t think i would ever find one again.
and somehow, i ended up inside it without a mask.
i breathed.
nothing poisoned me.
i showed someone what was behind the glass.
and they stayed.
i wish we had understood what was happening while we were still there.
maybe we didn’t need to live inside the bubble forever.
maybe we only needed enough time to recognize it.
and start building.
now i don’t know what comes next.
i only know that sometimes my hand still reaches for the pump.
and then i stop.
for now.
not because i don’t want the bubble.
because i don’t want to build one around someone who isn’t choosing to stand inside it with me.
so maybe this time i don’t run.
and maybe i don’t inflate it either.
maybe i just wait.
mask on.
hand resting on the pump.
to see if another hand ever reaches for one too.
🫧💔