The couple's laughter was a melody - soft, golden, the kind that lingers in the air like the last note of a lullaby. The way he touched her, fingers brushing her waist as if she were made of something sacred, made my chest ache. Love like that wasn't just rare; it was a rebellion. A defiance against the universe's cruel arithmetic, where most of us are left balancing equations that will never solve.

And me? I was the remainder. The fraction left over, crumpled and discarded.

I watched until the sun bled into twilight, until their joy became a shadow I could no longer bear. My feet carried me away, heavy as tombstones, toward the one place that had never asked anything of me - the edge of the pier, where the sea stretched out like an endless, unanswered question. The wind howled, or maybe it was me. I couldn't tell anymore.

I had fought. Not like a hero in some grand epic, but like a cornered animal, teeth bared against the jaws of a world that wanted me broken. I'd scraped my knees raw crawling toward mirages of happiness. I'd bargained with God, destiny, the indifferent stars - *just one break, one moment where the weight lifts.* But the heavens had a different answer: silence, and then the boot.

Maybe that was the truth of it. Some men are born under a cursed sky, their lives a ledger of losses, their prayers returned *unopened.* Maybe my existence was never meant to be a story of triumph, but a cautionary tale - *this is what happens when you hope too loudly.*

The water below was black ink, swallowing the last light. A final thought flickered: *What if my death is the offering that tips the scales?* Not a surrender, but a trade. My last breath, a release valve for whatever cosmic debt had dogged my steps. Let the gods take their pound of flesh and be satisfied. Let the storm in my chest finally still.

I closed my eyes. The salt air tasted like forgiveness.

And then -

I let go.