“There is a distinct flavor of panic lodged somewhere underneath my tongue and I'm fighting to remember where it came from.”

“For a moment I want to believe him. For a moment I want to sit on the floor and cry out the ocean lodged in my throat.”

“All I know next are his arms, the desperate edge to his voice when he says my name, and I'm unraveling in his embrace, I'm frayed and falling apart and I'm making no effort to control the tremors in my bones and he's so hot his skin is so hot and I don't even know where I am anymore.”

“I want to be someone else somewhere else with something else to fill my mind.”

“For a moment I feel as though I exist outside of my body, as if I'm looking at myself from his perspective. I see my face, my injured arm, these legs that suddenly seem unable to carry my weight. Cracks begin to form along my face, all the way down my arms, my torso, my legs.I imagine this is what it's like to fall apart.”

“I'm wearing dead cotton on my limbs and a blush of roses on my face.”

“Hope is hugging me, holding me in its arms, wiping away my tears and telling me that today and tomorrow and two days from now I will be just fine and I'm so delirious I actually dare to believe it.”