The Conditions of Will

by Jessa Hastings

He looks at me, but I mean, really looks at me—like there’s subtext. “When I like something, I just like it,” he says. And it’s me. I’m the subtext.

and I knew that it would have killed you if you knew I came to you and you weren’t there for me, so I let it kill me instead.”

He is fully aware of and thusly alive in his weaknesses; it’s where his humanity thrives.

Then he shrugs like it’s simple. “You’re the priority now.”