Say You'll Remember Me

by Abby Jimenez

This is why I hated humans. They were the worst animals on the planet.

“People are inherently good,” she said after me. “They want to help.” I turned and pinned her with a stare. “People are inherently assholes.”

“What did he look like?” she asked. “Like if Rhysand from the ACOTAR series were a real person,” I said, putting my straw between my teeth.

Chris, Mike, Jesse, Becca—they were all my best friends, practically family.

You know how when someone dies, all anyone cares about is how? Somehow the moment that takes them out is more interesting than decades worth of life and accomplishments and living. I hated it.

I NODDED AT the cherry in my glass. “You want mine?” “You don’t like them?” she asked. I did like them. I handed her the toothpick anyway. I liked her more.

Oohhhhhh my gooooood

“I promise you, I will always tell you if things are not okay.”

“What happens now?” he asked quietly. I squeezed my eyes shut. “You forget me.”

“I want to go wherever you want to go.”

Xavier buseeeettttttt

“You need to forget about me. I’m serious. Go home, find a girl there. Don’t call me, don’t text me. It’ll only make it harder for both of us.”

Saaad

The gnawing discontent of the last two months was finally quiet, and all I could think in this moment of relief was that I was kissing my wife.

“Narcissists are the fucking worst.”

And that was the moment I knew two things. The first was that I could never let my parents see me fail. Ever. I could never shutter this business. It would validate everything they thought about me and I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. And the second was that I was head over heels in love with my girlfriend. And that was worse than I thought it was too.

“Because if you were my wife you would be my world. Everything starts with you and ends with you. Anything else is just the stuff that happens in the middle.”

HOYFKIKSHIIITTTT

You think that it’s the big memories you should be chasing—and it is in a way. Birthdays and vacations and special occasions. But the small memories are the fabric of your life, the ones so inconsequential that you don’t even remember them. You just remember how you felt when you were making them.

“Some things are worth remembering, Samantha. No matter how much they hurt.”

“I know. I’ve always loved you,” he said simply. “I think I couldn’t forget you because I remember you from a different lifetime. And I loved you then too.”

JEEEEZUSSSSS

Maybe that’s the last thing we forget. Or we never forget it at all. Not really. We lose the words to say it. We lose the ability to show it. But we never lose the ability to feel it or recognize it when we see it. Love is the brightest color in a gray world.