Exposed

by Bey Deckard

You get sort of numb after a while when you cut off human contact, and you end up telling yourself all sorts of bullshit—like, that you don’t actually need it, that it’s not so bad going without—and then you carry on building a shell around yourself with these lies. But, what you don’t realize is that shell is brittle and thin and made of denial, barely containing the visceral need growing in your guts like some formless, ravenous, single-minded creature.

Emyr ruffled the hair at my neck, giving me a smile that was serene and a little bit sad, and again, I was struck by how he was able to make me feel like I was the younger one sometimes.