Boyhood Bravery
three
The way he's looking at me, light from the crackling television set reflecting in his eyes, echoing an emotion I'm not so sure I'm able to deal with - it makes my head spin, waves of dizziness are taking over, bending at my brain, and I tell him so, fingers shaking against the realization. He doesn't seem to mind, kind of like the way I don't really mind when he leaves toothpaste all over my bathroom counter and dirty socks on my bedroom floor. I tell him that I'm used to falling down a lot, when the floor opens up underneath the thousands of broken promises delivered by thousands of broken people. He looks at me, it's too intense and I look away - hoping to God that I'm not one of those broken people, but I am, I'm broken, too shattered, ill-fitting for this boy, his too-fragile heart. But there's something here, something that feels a lot like love and I can't give it up just yet, I can't.