The Gravity of Us

by Phil Stamper

I just do my best every day. It’s all any of us can do.”

I found a fire, a passion that I was missing. My identity seems to change by the minute, but I knew I was queer

There are some pains even ice cream can’t fix.

He can’t hide here, where the sun highlights every flaw and accents every doubt.

“The only feedback I ever hear is that he thinks you’re super cute.”

“excited to see you tonight :)”

and I could never describe why it’s perfect, but it just is.

I don’t know where we are, but I like the journey so far.

“I don’t have a favorite, but I literally couldn’t go to the gym for practice without my K-pop playlist.”

It’s unfair that there are enough nerve endings stored in my knee to make a simple act like that leave me breathless.

I want to fix his insecurities and make it better, even if the happiness and rightness lasts only a couple of seconds. Or a few minutes. I bite my lips, subconsciously, and his gaze drops to them.

“If you want to kiss me, kiss me because you like me. Not because you think it’ll make me happy.” “But I—” “You can’t just kiss away all the bad feelings I have. You can’t kiss me and make me better. I think you know that, but … I have to say it.”

“Yeah, someday.” I want to tell him I’m here, that he can talk to me if he needs to. Or I can sit here, inches from him, listening to him breathe. In, and out.

“I think I have.” She smirks, and she slowly pans from me to Leon and back. “But we’ll see how it plays out.”

in her place is a sleepy guy who’s so cute I could literally melt right here,

This crush is strong. This crush is too powerful. This crush will be the end of me. Or maybe I’m just being dramatic.

I want the world to be that much better because of our lips touching and his hand in my hair and …

There’s something gratifying about kissing someone goodbye. Just having someone to kiss goodbye is special, and I hope I never take him for granted.

“The future is hard, eh?” His grip tightens on my leg. “Not so hard if you refuse to think about it. I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Is that bad?”

The truth is, how do you not know what you want to do by now?

“I like the sound of that,” he says. “Being yours.”

“Left my weapons at home, though, so I guess we should just make out?”

I should let it go, but I’ve never been good at letting anything go.

I forget how to breathe. Until his smile lights up the damn hall.

But I want to yell out and for once say that I need her. That I’m not okay. That my rock is all broken and I am falling apart, but I won’t do that. My chest tightens. I can’t do that.

“I can’t expect you to make me your number-one priority. But being everyone’s number two or three or four priority is really hard for me.”

“Don’t aim to fix people. Fixing seems so permanent, so absolute. Like there’s no room for error. Aim to make things better.

Grace Tucker, Amira Saraya, Stephanie Jonasson, Dr. Guarav Jeswani, Joseph Sedgwick, and Lloyd Osborne