Cross My Heart

by Megan Collins

a broken heart can break your brain a little,

I’m really drawn to is someone who’s seen darkness—breathed it, even—and survived.

“You have his wife’s heart,” Nina continues through my silence. “You can’t have her life, too.”

I feel each beat of my heart like the tick of a clock.

true love doesn’t have an expiration date.

“Passion can be like that.” She laughed. “Violent and painful?”

the beginning was so blindingly beautiful, it kept me from seeing the end.

that’s true of all love, isn’t it? There’s always some part of it that hurts.

I’ve never had that, someone who actually means forever. Someone who wants me to belong to him even when I’m nothing but bones.

That's a bit much

People say that phrase, start over, like a new start is even guaranteed.

what if you’re stuck at the end of the last finish line? What if your time runs out, and in the end, you’re stuck with only yourself?

love doesn’t simply arrive, that sometimes it must be pursued,