Tia Williams

“Jesus, she’s the cutest person I’ve ever seen. You gave birth to her. A whole human. And you’re letting me meet her?”

“Can I hug you?”

“Please,” she breathed into his shirt.

Leaning in close, Shane pressed his lips to hers and softly sucked her tongue into his mouth, drawing her into a slow, deep kiss. Lightly, he nipped her bottom lip with his teeth—and the jolt was so intense, her legs buckled.

“In a way,” said Eva, “you helped me. I realized that I wasn’t the only hot mess in school.”

“I never realized I was lonely,” he said. “Until I met you and I wasn’t anymore.”

“In a way,” said Eva, “you helped me. I realized that I wasn’t the only hot mess in school.”

“I never realized I was lonely,” he said. “Until I met you and I wasn’t anymore.”

“Which one of you is the turtle? You know, the one who leaves and comes back and leaves again, while the other waits?” she said, spinning on her heel. “It’s a metaphor, writers. Think about it.”

“Stop what, Eva?”

“Stop making me fall for you again!”

Shane flinched. “How am I making you? It’s happening to both of us.”

“I will. But first, this. Do you even remember that house? You scared the fuck out of me. I slept with one eye open, ’cause I was terrified you’d cut too deep. Or take one pill too many. You branded us. You did that. There isn’t just one dangerous person here. There’s two. We’re the same.”

That morning, when I woke up and you…you weren’t there. I had to teach myself how to breathe again, in a world without you in it. Do you get that?”

“You begged me to stay, promised me you’d never leave. But it was all a lie. You never even tried to contact me. Not even to see if I’d made it out alive! Is it fun for you to ruin lives and escape unscathed? Are you sick, or just a liar? I stayed alive for you. But you killed me, anyway.”