The Way I Used to Be (The Way I Used to Be, #1)

by Amber Smith

Why didn’t you ever tell me?” I just shake my head. There always seemed to be so many good reasons—excellent reasons, in fact—but sitting here across from him, I can’t think of a single one. I look around. The Earth is still intact. I’m still alive. The floor didn’t open up and swallow me whole. I haven’t spontaneously combusted. I don’t know what I thought would happen if I told, if I let that that one word exist, but I didn’t expect nothing to happen. Everything is just as it was. No giant meteors collided with the planet and completely wiped out the entire human race. Dishes still clang in the kitchen, the radio still softly hums the oldies station it’s set to, the people around us continue their conversations. My heart, it’s still beating, and my lungs, I test them, in and out, yes, still breathing.

All these maybes swimming around my head make me think that “maybe” could just be another word for hope.