Cross My Heart

by Megan Collins

For anyone who relates to “The Prophecy” by Taylor Swift, and for every woman who’s ever been called crazy by someone she loves.

I know better than most the way dark thoughts intrude, the way a broken heart can break your brain a little, too.

All I can say is: the beginning was so blindingly beautiful, it kept me from seeing the end.

Your trust was a gift that he refused to handle with care.

I don’t think you’re crazy. You were in love. And if I’ve learned anything from my own experience, it’s that love turns you inside out. It changes you—on a deep, cellular level—until even your skin feels different, your voice sounds foreign, until you do and say things you never thought you could. Some days, love makes you look in the mirror and admire your own reflection; others, it makes you a monster in the glass.

It comes down to a simple truth: it’s easier, sometimes, to be miserable in love than it is to be alone.

It’s usually the people closest to us who hurt us the most.”

I recognize the agony of being misunderstood. Of not being believed.

for some of us, bad love feels safer than no love at all.