[ CW ] Make me cry my eyes out in a single paragraph

The endless echos of memory resonate as I gaze across the moonlit lake. Those days seemed eternal. Cheap tacos on the dock with a side of flirtation played off as friendship in the late-summer breeze. Middle-schoolers with shared music taste, our heartbeats pacing as we feigned coldness to draw closer, relishing the attraction we lacked the courage to acknowledge. Your mother as chauffeur and co-conspirator, casting a protecting gaze on all but our first kiss, offering up ice cream afterward in obvious ignorance. We were young and hopeful and sure until her harmless hand picked up that gun. Those echos are endless.
