"Prelude — Laughter, First Light"- by Aditya Jha

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Before the laughter scattered,

before the quiet settled between us,

there were moments we held together,

small, fragile, bright.

Hands brushed in passing,

smiles lingered longer than necessary,

words carried weight we barely understood.

Friendship, in its quiet way,

was stitched into the edges of our days,

woven into the pauses,

the glances,

the unnoticed gestures that kept us tethered.

Now the rooms are empty,

the echoes dim,

but the threads remain,

thin and trembling,

a map of what we were

and, somehow, still are.

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