The silence between Franklin and Hannah spoke volumes. It wasn’t about avoiding her, it was simply about avoiding being torn apart.

Franklin had loved Hannah from the moment he saw her at the Ranch Bowl. She had a boyfriend at the time, but that didn’t matter. Franklin saw her and immediately, he knew he loved her.

They spent time together that first night. Flirting, stolen glances as they hung out with the others. He knew he wanted to continue this, but he had also just started dating someone recently. His only mission now was to find a way out, so he could be with Hannah.

Love was such a foreign concept to someone who felt so disconnected to everything. But Hannah managed to illicit feelings, thoughts, and words from Franklin that he didn’t even realize he was capable of.

Normally, Franklin collected silences between himself and just about everyone he met. He lived in the quiet moments between people. He felt most alive when there was nothing.

But now, the silence between him and Hannah was devastating, even though it was self imposed.

They had reconnected about a year ago amidst tragedy and Franklin felt the rush of the first moment he saw her nearly 27 years ago. They had spoken here and there over social media, usually when another rockstar’s life abruptly and tragically ended, but this time seemed different.

They both knew he’d fall hard and tellingly, they both knew she’d break his heart.

She warned him she would. It wasn’t done intentionally or with malice. Quite the opposite. She didn’t want to but she knew she wasn’t in a place to welcome him into her heart the way he needed or she wanted.

Franklin went into a self imposed exile after he hurt her one night. It also wasn’t intentional, but he was careless with his words, something he knew he had to be mindful of. Words mattered to Hannah, more than to anyone else Franklin had ever met.

The minute the words left his fingertips (they were messaging back and forth that night) he knew he had said the wrong thing.

It came out all wrong and its original intent in his head all made sense, but by the time she had replied he had worked himself up over it so much that he wasn’t even sure what exactly he meant.

Looking back on it, the message was for himself, but at the time he thought it was hers and hers alone. He needed to hear it, but he shouldn’t have spoken it aloud and directed it at her.

He shouldn’t have been so careless, even though it was meant from the most loving, kind place he had ever known.

He truly loved Hannah and probably always would hold a place for her in his heart, even though there seemed to be less and less room for love in it every day. The silence between them created a chasm that Franklin feared could never be crossed again, but he also knew that he’d spend the rest of his life hoping that might change.