“It’s me. I’m the problem. I just… I don’t know how to turn it off. I told you. I…I get all up in my head. And it doesn’t matter how many times I tell myself that it’s not real. How much I remind myself how good I have it—how lucky I am. I have two parents who love me unconditionally. A roof over my head. A sister who would walk through hell to protect me. I have you… you…” His jaw works, eyes growing impossibly bright when my words die there. “It just…it doesn’t matter,” I whisper. “Because that thing inside me…it tells me no one actually likes me. That you’re only here out of obligation.
...more
