In the Gray

by B.B. Reid

“If you don’t want me to follow you into fire, then don’t run into fire.”

“I want to give you shelter and be your peace. I want to take care of you, Dream. I want to be yours. I won’t ask if you like me too because I don’t waste time with stupid questions. Instead, I’ll only ask one.” I held my breath and waited even though I already knew what his question—and what my answer—would be. “Can I be your boyfriend, Atlas Ilana Beck?”

I guarded my loyalty…for you. I kept my heart hard as stone so that when the day came I found the woman I couldn’t hold any of that back for, I’d know without a doubt that I’d found the one.”

The gray. The sliver of space between right and wrong, knowing and not knowing, salvation and damnation—between hope for a future and the calamity of us.