Your forever person isn’t the one who makes you hide in the bathroom and cry your eyes out alone. They’re the one who follows you into the bathroom and sits on the floor with you until you feel okay again.

Your forever person isn’t the one who gets pissed at you for being emotional. They’re the one who gets pissed at whoever the fuck made you emotional in the first place.

Your forever person isn’t the one who tells you to stop crying because you’re being overdramatic or accuses you of being on your period. They’re the one who holds you close and encourages you to let everything out, to bawl if it will make you feel better.

Your forever person isn’t the one who tries to temporarily fix your problems with expensive dinners and new jewelry. They’re the one who will sit down with you and talk about your problems in detail so that they can find a way to permanently fix them.

Your forever person isn’t the one who you should hide your feelings from. They’re the one who you should feel comfortable expressing any emotion in front of — whether it’s happiness or sadness, whether you’re creating tears or laughter.

Your forever person is the one who will always stand by you, no matter what mood you’re in.

They will know exactly what to say to make you smile while tears are streaming down your face. They will have the ability to bring you happiness even when you feel like your entire world is crashing down around you.

Your forever person will make you laugh more than you cry — and if they ever accidentally cause tears to stream down your face, they’ll be there to wipe them away. They’ll find a way to make up for whatever happened and to right their wrong.

Your forever person won’t slam the door after an argument and ignore your texts for the rest of the night. They won’t drown their worries in alcohol and come home too wasted to have a civil conversation with you.

They will sit down with you and compromise until your relationship comes out stronger instead of weaker. And when the fight is resolved, they will kiss your pain away. They will erase all those pesky tears.

The last thing they will ever want, even if they’re royally pissed at you, is to see you cry.

They don’t want to see those eyes that they love staring into fill up with tears. They don’t want to see those lips that they love kissing puffy with sadness. They don’t want to see your lashes dripping black or your cheeks smudged with liner.

They want you to be happy — because your happiness matters as much to them as their own happiness. It’s connected. You’re connected.

Seeing you upset makes them upset. Seeing you smile makes them smile.

Your forever person will hate themselves for making you cry. And they will do whatever it takes to see you laugh again. 

Holly Riordan is the author of Lifeless Souls, available here.