"I love you." Those three simple words that they told each other, it sounded like a script, like they were always meant to say that. It was no longer love, it was just something they always said. Two loves, once burning bright, now no more than a dull flicker of light. "I love you forever." A young love's siren song, a promise that is waiting to be broken. Nothing is forever. They know that, yet they still cling to the hope that it is. They are unaware of the heartache that will follow, or they are and are ignoring it. The doubt seeps in, slowly at first, then all consuming. They can't tell you when this started, they will ignore it until they can't any longer. They will live their lives knowing that the next "I love you" could be the last. It's subtle, their distancing. They make up excuses of business until it is no longer an excuse. They avoid each other until they forget what it's like to be together. They change their style, their hair colour. It all leads back to them. Their first "I love you," their first "I love you forever," it all echoes in their minds. Like a song that you can't get rid of. Everything reminds them of each other. They distance, they break up, they move on. It still lingers. Like a bad memory, it stays. They cry out into the night sky to get rid of the longing, but the sky does not reply. The sky has more important things to listen for than a heartbreak that was seen from a mile away. "I love you," they tell other people. And for a moment, all is okay again. They live, they love, then the longing comes back. The loneliness creeps in, crawls in uninvited, and the cycle continues. They never did learn how to say "I love you forever" off script.