You Between the Lines

by Katie Naymon

You can take the girl out of high school, but you can’t take the fractured remnants of an obsessive crush out of the girl.

I notice how the feet next to me step completely in sync with my own—left, right, left, right. The old me would have made something of that.

I constantly accommodate, but then I secretly resent other people for not being as accommodating.

“I know it’s stupid. But admitting I need them feels like saying, ‘This is my natural state. And my state is

a problem.’ For me, and for other people.”

what I mean is you’re so aware. You know, I watch you, and you’re conscious of others, making space for people in workshop to talk. You’re generous in the Writing Center, too; you make other people feel comfortable.

His stare climbs across my skin like ivy.

I still know deep down in my heart that you’re exactly the wrong kind of guy and we inevitably won’t last and who needs that stress in this economy?

Guys like him don’t stay with girls like me. More important, they’re not good for people like me. The ones who want to please. The ones who contort and twist to fit into whatever shape

It’s an awful habit—viewing yourself via the lens of another—but now, smoothing out the divot in my chin and ruffling my bangs, it’s the only language I know.

YOU CAN’T REALLY GET SOMETHING out of your system, can you? Because the second it becomes forbidden again, you want it even more.

“What happened?” My mom puts the back of her hand over my forehead before I can answer. “I’m not sick.” I brush her off and stare at the ground, willing away tears. “I just couldn’t.” “You know, you didn’t eat much at dinner. I get low blood sugar if I skip a meal,” my dad says.

Be SO fr. These 2 grown adults cannot be this clueless and emotionally OUT OF TUNE with their freaking child and how much their behavior affects her!!