Gray After Dark

by Noelle W. Ihli

Opening up your heart is messy—and risky. But keeping your heart locked is risky, too.

Her words sounded wise right up to the moment I learned that it didn’t actually matter whether you kept your heart open or locked. Twisted metal and broken glass sliced through it either way. So did loss.

“Life outside is worth everything,”

But spending time with her was the thing that brought me to life, made me realize that the kind of love I got at home was halfhearted and finite. Drops of water in a bucket. Miley—and her mom, Jane—loved like the turquoise ocean I’d only seen in postcards. Warm and limitless.

It had always been the two of us against the world. On paper, I was the champion. But Mom was my champion.