Ethic 5

by Ashley Antoinette

His profile pic was a butterfly because that’s what Morgan was to him. Her sister had been a moth; destructive, and fated for disaster, fated to fly into a flame. Morgan was different. She would fly, but she would fly free, floating through life, from experience to experience, letting everyone admire her beauty from the bottom because she would always be on top. A queen on her throne. Soaring high. A fucking butterfly.

“So, what? This is the part where you swoop in? Make me feel better? Become my man?” Morgan asked. The car stopped in front of her building. “Because if I can’t have that man, I don’t want no man. If you not that man, you’re not even a man to me. You’re a boy, because nobody is man enough to measure up to him. So, just don’t…don’t play defense and try to get the rebound. I’m not the same girl you met in philosophy class, Bash. I would take your soul just because I can.”

Bella would make sure that she had the upper hand in everything. Her friendships. With boys. She would never put herself in a position to break, if someone walked away from her.

“Love yourself so much you don’t let another person come short ever again.” “I am woman. My crown is not his to repossess.”

“Love yourself, love yourself. Love yourself. He can’t take my crown. Love yourself, love yourself more than you love him. Love yourself. Don’t do this. Love yourself. I am woman.”