My Mother Screamed That I Had an Iceberg Where My Soul Should Be and Slammed the Door Hard Enough to Rattle the Photos — I Stood There Waiting for the Guilt That Always Came, and for the First Time in Thirty-Two Years, It Never Did

Reid didn’t have to say a word against you.

He just showed me what love actually looks like.

It looks like someone being glad you exist for no reason at all.

It looks like being asked how you are and having the person actually wait for the answer.

It doesn’t come with an invoice.

And once I’d felt the real thing, I couldn’t unfeel it, and I couldn’t keep pretending the thing you gave me was the same.

That’s what changed.