Mia,” Kim said, an edge of warning in her voice signaling the end of her patience. “You’re starting to act like one of those girls. Do you need to get me a gun?

And the voice grows stronger and stronger, and it’s my voice this time and it’s asking a question: How does she know?

I am adrenaline slammed into inertia: a fast car stuck in traffic.

It was selfish what I asked her to do, even if it wound up being the most unselfish thing I've ever done.

Are you happy in your misery? Resting peaceful in desolation? It’s the final tie that binds us The sole source of my consolation" “blue

Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams.

Mia and I had been together for more than two years, and yes, it was a high school romance, but it was still the kind of romance where I thought we were trying to find a way to make it forever, the kind that, had we met five years later and had she not been some cello prodigy and had I not been in a band on the rise - or had our lives not been ripped apart by all this -I was pretty sure it would've been.