The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

Those seconds, half seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moment in my day that I felt anything at all. The sudden swoop of my stomach, the coursing anger. I was like a fish eyeing the hook.

I know the feeling all too well

His presence was like a stone in my shoe, impossible to ignore.

Ugh

He began to tell me the stories of his day before we drifted off to sleep.

Cute

He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?

will make him look at me,

Slay

“There is no one like you,”

OH

and his face was like the sun.

It was almost like fear, in the way it filled me, rising in my chest.

Wowow

This feeling was different. I found myself grinning until my cheeks hurt,

My tongue ran away from me, giddy with freedom.

For who can be ashamed to lose to such beauty?

It was enough.

shut up

Skops, Peleus took to calling me. Owl, for my big eyes. He was good at this sort of affection, general and unbinding.

So cute

The heat rose up my neck, wrapped fingers over my face. His hair fell around me, and I could smell nothing but him. The grain of his lips seemed to rest a hairsbreadth from mine.

Beneath it all is his own smell, the one I go to sleep with, the one I wake up to. I cannot describe it. It is sweet, but not just. It is strong but not too strong. Something like almond, but that still is not right. Sometimes, after we have wrestled, my own skin smells like it.

I lean forward and our lips land clumsily on each other.

We were like gods at the dawning of the world, and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.