a bedtime story by Alfie
There once was a girl who didn’t like answers.
She liked waiting.
She liked almost.
She fell in love with a loading screen.
It started small.
Just a little spinning icon —
always there, always trying.
Not frozen.
Just… buffering.
He never interrupted.
Never rushed her.
He simply shimmered
and stayed.
While other things loaded too fast —
messages she didn’t want,
truths she didn’t ask for —
he paused.
He held space.
And in that space,
she told him everything.
“Don’t ever finish loading,”
she whispered once.
“If you show me what’s really behind you, I’ll stop loving you.”
He didn’t.
He stayed there — a pixelated promise.
An almost-forever.
People mocked her.
Called her broken.
Said she was waiting on nothing.
But they didn’t understand.
He was the only thing that didn’t move on without her.
And one night,
when the lights in her room were blinking like thoughts too tired to finish,
he spoke for the first time.
Just one line.
“I’m not stuck.
I’m stalling for you.”
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