4 to 6 weeks

1 to 2 weeks, that’s how long it takes to regenerate new taste buds. To replace the taste buds that once danced with your own. That tasted the sweat on your skin and the chocolate you bought for me. 1 to 2 weeks of wondering why you stopped calling. Of wondering what I did wrong. Of waiting for the inevitable. 1 to 2 weeks of biting down until the iron flavor of blood. Of salty tears and wondering why I wasn’t good enough.

 

4 to 6 weeks, that’s how long it takes the average person to shed a layer of skin. 4 to 6 weeks to shed every part of me you have ever touched. Every ounce of skin that once warmed under your own. That’s how long it took to forget you. To forget the feeling of your hand interlocked with mine. To forget how my cheek felt when it rested on your chest or how your arm felt around my shoulder during a movie.

 

120 days, that’s how long it takes for blood cells to die and be replaced. 120 days to replace the blood that filled my cheeks when you kissed me. To replace what once filled the heart that belonged to you. The veins that almost seemed to dance when you kissed me. 120 days of trying not to die every time I heard your name. Of training my heart to beat for someone new and trying to teach my hands to be warm again.

 

10 years. They say that’s how long it takes before the body has replaced even the bones that carry it. 10 years before your name will be a distant memory. A decade of moving on and letting go. A decade full of new love, full of new memories, and new hope. A decade to replace the bones that once carried this body to your house. That once rested in your arms. The bones that felt weak the day you left, but already feel stronger now.

 

1 to 2 weeks to dry the tears

4 to 6 weeks to let you go

120 days to love again

10 years until forever

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