The Hard Choice

I'm sorry.

Nothing else seemed like the right thing to say. Nothing else felt like the right words to use.

I wasted all that effort and time, I'm sorry.

I just wasn't good enough, I'm sorry.

I woke up.

I'm sorry. 

Maybe I've let the hero mindset fester in my head for too long already, and perhaps I might have let my prior achievements lull me into this false sense of bravado, confidence, and security… had me thinking I could take on the world if I just believed hard enough that I could. 

Genuinely, there wasn't a doubt in my mind for even a second that I couldn't get Ria to wake up. I was convinced forthright that no matter what it took, no matter what needed to be said, that one of these days eventually, when I wake up to the rays of the morning sun again, that she'll be there squinting and shielding her eyes from the glare alongside me.