The Return of Ellie Black

by Emiko Jean

But it was the nice guys you had to watch out for. The mean ones, they wore their crimes on their sleeves, carting them around with all their messy emotional baggage. Nice guys buried things deep.

She cut herself up on the razor’s edge of hope.

the truth is these people are not strangers. They are the men who you sleep with, the men you work with, the men you raise. I wish this wasn’t what it means to be female—it is not a matter of if something bad will happen, but when.

But often, Chelsey wondered if her father, if people in general, should spend less time protecting daughters and more time worrying about sons.

“I’m scared,” she repeats. “Me too,” he admits. “This is uncharted territory. But I’ll hang on if you do.”