Make Me Hate You

by Kandi Steiner

That’s what his gaze did to me, what it always had done. It stripped me bare.

I looked into the eyes of the man I didn’t know, of the boy I used to know better than anyone, of the friend I’d lost. Of the friend who’d hurt me.

A day that had killed me and also brought me to life within hours meant nothing to him. It meant nothing to him — that he’d comforted me, touched me, kissed me, ruined me. It meant nothing to him that he’d made me feel more loved than I ever had in my entire life right after I’d convinced myself love wasn’t real, and then he’d ripped it away the very next day, taking everything I cherished along with it.

I loved you when I wasn’t supposed to,