Make Me Hate You

by Kandi Steiner

“This is me saying that I would set myself on fire to bring light to all of the dark places within you.” – Beau Taplin

was torture — absolute masochism. I asked him what he would have done in another life, and his answer showed us what could have been.

He and I, we weren’t just here and now. We were the past, the present, the future. We were other worlds and other universes, too.

If I said I was completely avoiding thinking about Tyler, it would be a lie. Some days I did my best to keep my mind busy, but others, I submitted to every drowning thought and memory he produced in me. Some days, I’d close my eyes and trace every feature of him until it felt like he was standing in the room with me. Some

have loved you since the first day I saw you walk through the hallways of school that had felt like a prison to me until you came. I loved you when I wasn’t supposed to, when you were my little sister’s best friend, when I claimed you for my own at the worst possible time, and then broke your heart because I was too scared that I couldn’t be the one to help you through everything you were facing.”

“I’m saying that you are spectacular, Jasmine Olsen, and that I love you with everything that I am.”