You don’t look at me like you’re learning me

It’s more like you’re remembering

Like whatever I am

You’ve already seen it

From the inside

I’ll say something unfinished

And you’ll nod

Not because you agree

But because you know where it ends

I don’t feel interpreted around you

I feel… recognized

Before the thought finishes forming

It’s strange

I’m sharper with everyone else

Clearer

More convincing

With you

I trail off

Mid-sentence

Mid-idea

And somehow that’s enough

You know when I’m about to leave a room

Before I stand up

You know when I’m lying to myself

Before I say it out loud

You know what I mean

When I use the wrong words

Sometimes it feels unfair

Like you’re holding a version of me

I don’t get to access on my own

Not because you took it

But because I don’t need it when you’re there

I don’t explain my past to you

You react to it in real time

Like it’s happening now

Like it never really stopped

And I don’t know when that started

Or if it ever did

I just know this:

when I’m with you

I stop checking myself

I stop adjusting

I stop deciding who I am

And that’s the part that scares me

Because if you walked away

You’d take the quiet with you

So no

You don’t know me better than I know myself

You just know me

In the place where I don’t have to