The Astonishing Color of After

by Emily X.R. Pan

Pain has an element of blank; It cannot recollect When it began, or if there were A day when it was not.

“You know it when you miss someone you just saw an hour ago. When you can’t stop fantasizing about kissing them. When you feel irrationally happy simply standing in the same room. When you’re addicted to just… being around them.”

“Sisters are very lucky,” Feng says quietly. “They get to be family and they also get to be best friends. Even in the afterlife, I think they recognize the presence of the other better than anyone else.”

Some terrible requirement of being a teenager is being absolutely awful when your parents are being lovely.