I left. When I should have stayed.

Maybe it's not as important to you as it was for me, but that's not for you to decide.

That's why you did it. You wanted your world to collapse around you. You wanted everything to get as dark as possible.

We didn't get that chance because I was afraid. Afraid I had no chance with you.

You can hear rumors. But you can't know them.

I can't. You can't rewrite the past.

I felt I had a very innocent childhood and I feel privileged by that. But as an adult, I know that there were people who didn't have that. There are a lot of teens who haven't had as easy a childhood as me, and having literature that explores these "darker" parts helps relieve the burden and stress they may be feeling. As a writer, there is often a temptation to draw back when we write for teens - to preserve their innocence. But the reality is, if someone has already had that innocence taken in their life, then not writing about it is just brushing it under the rug.