“What if I get hurt again?” I asked her, something stinging the back of my eyes. I knew it couldn’t be tears. I hadn’t cried since the day of Carlo’s funeral, and even then, those tears hadn’t felt like mine. “I can’t… I don’t know if I could ever come back from that again.” Belle ran her thumb over my knuckles. “If he hurts you, then you do exactly what you did last time. You pick yourself up, dust that shit off, and keep walking. You stand a little straighter and you learn.”
