The Fall Risk

by Abby Jimenez

I could put five rounds, rapid fire, into center mass from ten yards away while chewing gum and listening to an audiobook.

Pink heart-shaped sugar cookies with the word Whore piped on them in a circle with a slash through it. I died.

“Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.”

I think you pick toxic men because it’s what you think you deserve. And then you chase them off, or they prove they’re exactly what you think they are, and they leave you, and you think you deserve that too. You don’t. You are very worth loving. And sticking around for.”

“If you ever come back here,” I whispered, “you won’t find her, you’ll find me. And then no one will ever find you.”

A blink of an eye for a redwood, but timeless for me.