Boys Like Him

k of my skull like a headache that wouldn't leave. I kept my eyes on the clock abov

crossed over the other. Her pen hovere

he broke the silence. "Ther

dding band had worn into her skin. And the

, I could

y own pulse pounding in my ears. I tried anyway, opening my mouth once, twice... noth

laugh. Rea

fragments glued together by habit. I tugged on the sleeve of

d. I coughed. Tried again. "

'd heard that a hun

say something... anything, but she just watch

finally came, they

everyone swears

a war

arn you about

t cut through your skin like they've kno

rous," "toxic," "bad news," and wrap

your innocence! Don't play with

ntoxicating the fire can be or how it d

o

to feel something real. It curls around your ankles like smoke under a l

th alarms or warnings. They slide into your DMs around 2:07 a.m. with something bor

you

Type again. Pretend you're annoyed, but your heart's already r

te-night phone calls that stretch into sunrise. It feels like someone is finally

a boy....he w

ery last sliver of light, u

ike both salvation and shackles, and his words, carved so care

w Lloyd, I didn't t

gut instincts screaming run. M

be s

. Look away before he

e not

he thing a

d once his eyes found min

ctive. That would've

gravita

trying. He had a calm, effortless swagger,

ike he lived in the gym, but never made it his personality. And that face, pretty-boy feat

e, they wer

alking con

ice. Ha

h. Imposs

th a shot so clean it made people go quiet, but he never cared who was watching. He was all of the

bsession and hunger. Not just physical, though there was that too. It was deeper. A craving for his attention a

with the devil, and walk away with

of it, thinking I was safe. I told myself I was smarter than the others

dead

d through his eyes. He rewrote my reality, slowly and carefully

y. A gentle touch after a cruel word, a promise dressed up in pain

or, phone in my lap, staring at screenshots I never asked to see. Trying to b

wasn't

lingy, emotional.

it me, I believed

with soft words, hard sex, and promi

my world, and I became

es I didn't remember throwing. Neighbors whispering through the door, afraid to kno

it a psych

what it

ses

oesn't fall in love. He inva

d

at the ceiling, wondering how love, or