Layla

by Colleen Hoover

“Doesn’t matter. You could be terrible, but everyone else still fades into the background when you’re onstage.”

Minutes feel like they matter more when they’re spent with her.

It’s like I live inside my own head now more than I live in reality.

She said, “It’s like a shiver running through my blood.”

I can’t be the Band-Aid for her wounds. I need to be what helps them heal.

The need to disprove the thing that’s scary is greater than the need to run from the potential harm it might bring.

Falling in love with her was weightless, like air was breezing through my bones. Falling out of love is fucking heavy, like my lungs are carved from iron.

Perhaps what we desire can sometimes be so strong it overpowers our fate.”