In the Unlikely Event

by L.J. Shen

“I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.” —A.S. Byatt

This misunderstood, beautiful, brilliant boy who is burdened with gifts he never asked for, but unwrapped nonetheless. His talent, charm, and beauty are a weapon, and right now they’re aimed at me.

“Stereotypes exist because they have a seed of truth.”

He feels like he’s never left my side. Like I carried a tiny part of him with me from the moment I was born, and now that he’s here, we can fit the part I kept with the rest of him, like finishing a puzzle.

To burn under your fingertips, I think, is to come alive.

but I don’t fear her capabilities over me. Isn’t that the essence of love? Find someone worth killing for? Someone with the power to ruin you?”

“That was a minute ago. It’s time to move on. Don’t let the little things in life bother you, yeah?” Crazy as it sounds, I get what he means. Life is too short to get caught up in the small things.

“Not needing money makes you rich in another way, Rory. A better way. The less you depend on it, the less it limits you.

Moral of the story: clutching something desperately doesn’t mean you’re going to keep it. You might just kill it.

“Because it still burns. Old flames burn you all the same.”

The truth hurts. It cuts you open. That’s why we hide it from the ones we love. From the people whose opinion we care about.