Vivid

by Jessica Wilde

That's when it hit me. She won. I didn't even see it coming. Just a few words out of her mouth and I was basically her bitch now.

"There is no need for a scale because I'm not disgusted. You're scarred, Merrick, not ruined."

"Being scarred by something so horrible isn't the same as being ruined. You can only ruin yourself, Merrick, and that kind of destruction doesn't leave any visible scars."

when I can't see you, I still feel you. I still love you more than I did yesterday and not nearly as much as tomorrow'.

"He fell in love with the pieces that weren't visible. I had to learn to accept that, sometimes, it's not about beauty. It's about the heart of someone. You have the biggest heart I've ever seen, Grace. That boy over there feels it."

Grace Samuelson didn't know it, hell, I didn't even know it at the time, but that was the exact moment my heart irrevocably devoted itself to her.

The sadness you've known, that only helps a man become happier because he learns to appreciate what he has. You haven't changed, you're just wiser because you've learned life."

Finding the beauty in the ugly, the good in the bad, the light in the dark. This one tiny thing; it was for me. It was a reminder that life doesn't have to be clean and perfect to be beautiful."

"It's you because, I may be broken and damaged, but with you, I've never felt more complete."

"Merrick. You're not broken. A little scratched up, maybe," she pointed out. "But sometimes, scratches make things beautiful."

"I still have a lot to work on, Grace. I'm not worthy of you. Not yet. But I'm going to be. I'll do my best to fight the monsters we face and I'll stop being afraid of the dark. Because with you, there's always light. I know that now."