Heath and Sue Ellen had built their entire relationship on music. It was their bond, their language. But beyond the late-night gigs and fleeting highs, another weight pressed down on them—one they never talked about. Sue Ellen had been quietly nursing the heartbreak of a miscarriage, a dream of family lost that neither of them could bear to fully face.

It had happened in the middle of their climb, right when they were trying to get the attention of a big Nashville label. Sue Ellen had been the one to push through, insisting they keep playing, keep touring. She didn’t want to be the reason they gave up, not when they were so close. Heath, for all his love and tenderness, didn’t know how to talk about it either. He’d seen the sadness in her eyes, heard the way her voice sometimes trembled during the ballads. But they were so focused on making it, they both pushed the pain down deep.

The music, once their escape, started to feel like an obligation, a job they had to do rather than the love they used to share. The pressure of chasing stardom became unbearable when layered with the unspoken grief. Every performance was filled with the tension of what was unsaid—Sue Ellen silently blaming herself for the baby they lost, Heath feeling helpless, unable to find the right words or the right notes to make things better.

One night, after a particularly grueling set at a dive bar outside of Austin, Sue Ellen collapsed backstage. She wasn’t sick, not in the way you’d expect. It was exhaustion—of the body, of the heart. Heath rushed to her side, but as he held her, both of them knew it was more than just physical tiredness. The weight of it all—the miscarriage, the failed dream, the suffocating pressure—had finally broken them.

HARD TO BREATHE | Cody Steele (Country) Lyric (youtube.com)

“I can’t do this anymore,” Sue Ellen whispered, her voice cracking. “Not the music, not this life, not… us.”

Heath looked at her, a mixture of love and devastation in his eyes. “We can still make it, Sue Ellen. We just need a break. A little time—”

But she shook her head. “It’s not just the music. It’s everything. We lost something, Heath, and we never talked about it. We just kept pushing forward like it didn’t matter. But it does. It did. And now, I don’t know how to breathe anymore.”

The words hung heavy in the air, as final as a funeral bell. For the first time, Heath realized that the dream wasn’t the only thing slipping away—Sue Ellen was too. And it wasn’t just because they hadn’t made it big. It was because the life they had built, based on songs and shared hopes, had been eroded by a deeper pain they’d never confronted.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours, two broken souls no longer able to carry the weight of what they had lost. Eventually, Sue Ellen stood, gave him one last tearful look, and walked out the door, leaving Heath alone with nothing but the sound of his own breath, heavy and painful, in the empty bar.

In the end, it wasn’t the grind of the road or the unfulfilled dream that tore them apart—it was the silence between them, the grief neither of them knew how to face, and the love that had suffocated under the weight of their unspoken heartache. Heath watched as Sue Ellen faded into the distance, knowing that no song, no matter how sweet, could ever bring her back.

LYRICS

HARD TO BREATHE

And I said sometimes
I find it hard to breathe when you’re around
When every word
Coming from my mouth

It doesn’t rub you the right way
It only rubs you the wrong way
Just like every day

It’s hard to breathe when you’re around
It’s hard to find my way back down
It’s hard to breathe when you’re around

I said someday
Well I’m goin’ find a way
To make every day
Seem like my birthday

It won’t matter what you say
Because you’ll never be
Stronger than me
Ohhhhhhh

It’s hard to breathe when you’re around
It’s hard to find my way back down
It’s hard to breathe when you’re around

And I guess I will hold my breathe
Because these feelings come and go
Sometimes I will stop
And you will know

I said sometimes
I find it hard to breathe when you’re a round
You make me feel
Like I’m upside down

My head is spinning around
Ohhhhhhhhhhh

It’s hard to breathe when you’re around
It’s hard to find my way back down
It’s hard to breathe when you’re around

It’s hard to breathe
It’s hard to breathe
Oh Oh Oh
Oh Oh Oh

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Written by Brian Jay Cline
Produced by Punish Studios enhanced by AI