The Five

by Lily White

This woman had lived hard. Had become hard.

People shouldn’t die alone. They should be surrounded by family and loved ones, they should be held and reminded that their lives had meaning. The universe is rarely so kind.

I wondered if it was true for everyone that you never feel like a true adult until the day your parents die.

Nobody cares about girls like me. We’re lost to the shadows, tossed aside and forgotten about by a world that only wishes to see beauty, intelligence and fortune.

“You wouldn’t listen. There’s not much more to tell than that. Rainey had a story to tell, and you brushed it off because you couldn’t wait to get into her pants. I think that’s a problem with men these days, don’t you? Too many of them are so interested in what’s going on with their dicks that they refuse to take the time to hear a woman out. Makes me a little sick to think about it. And sadly, it doesn’t

To love another person is to slip beneath their skin. If they hurt, so do you. If someone attacks them, you’ve been attacked as well. If they are drowning, your head is being dragged under water right beside them. And if they die, you might as well start digging your own grave because a part of you belongs to the ground. That is what love is. That is how I loved Rainey.