The Fall

by Tal Bauer

Or worse—what if you’re not broken and this is just you, as good as you’ll ever get?

I want destiny, and forever, and my name stamped in silver that screams to the universe that I existed, that I mattered.

I’m in the future. I’m in the fucking future.

I’m suddenly jealous of the me who already knows, who holds those memories and has answered all our questions.

Every inch of me is branded with the heat of him.

So this is what it feels like to be found.

Blair’s eyes were so beautifully blue.

Please, please. Don’t take him away.

I was in love. I had everything. Blair looked at me like I was the only star in his sky. And none of it was real.

There are no palm trees here.

To him, we traded jabs about my knee. To me, the universe smiled and showed me its center.

Every version of me orbits this same truth: he is the fixed point in my universe. No matter how many times reality resets, how many times memory betrays me, he is the center of my soul.

If there’s any choice left in me, I’ll use it for him.

I may have existed before I met Blair, but I never lived until I loved him.