You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession

by Piper Weiss

All that keeps you from disappearing is another person who sees you. What happens when they look away?

I hate being left out of conversations about me. Somewhere inside them lies the truth about who I am, but I’m not allowed to hear it.

There are two kinds of perpetrators: those strangers on the street and those you already know. All of them are men.

I’m an airtight jar of carbonated steam. Throw me out the window and watch me burst—all crystal spit and heat.

This is my favorite part, when we are so close to the destination, but not there yet, when there are still a few minutes left to believe that this night will be the one that changes everything.

But it’s not children that usher in maturity, it’s the ability to make decisions.

“The classic case of a child abuser is not a stranger in a black van,” he says. “It’s a very friendly person who uses their position to gain the trust of young people and get them to do things they wouldn’t normally do.”

I wished I could share his grief, so that he didn’t have to carry so much of it.