My Year of Rest and Relaxation

by Ottessa Moshfegh

It was proof that I had not always been completely alone in this world. But I think I was also holding on to the loss, to the emptiness of the house itself, as though to affirm that it was better to be alone than to be stuck with people who were supposed to love you, yet couldn’t.

I did crave attention, but I refused to humiliate myself by asking for it.