fast

by Millie Belizaire

It didn’t matter if he never touched me again, anyway. What mattered was that he already had. There wasn’t no going back from that. It was burned into my brain now, and so no matter how much Gracie promised to keep me safe, all I could think about was how she couldn’t do it in the first place.

time makes you forget the things that never mattered. However, when things are serious—traumatic, maybe—time has a way of painting unforgettable images into your memory. Trauma is like cement; time only makes it more solid. Sometimes you can fool yourself into thinking you’re “over” something. Then you catch yourself saying things, doing things, avoiding things, realizing you never truly got over anything. You just set new boundaries so that the same thing couldn’t happen to you twice.

Time doesn’t heal most wounds. If you’re lucky, time distracts you long enough so that you can forget.

FACTS!

How ever much he desired me, I knew he would never take anything I wasn’t willing to give. With him, I was safe.

You can never win against someone if you don’t ever want to see them lose.

Shaun kissed me like I was the only thing that mattered to him between the earth and space. In his arms, I felt protected.

“Men are takers,

“They don’t always mean to be, but they

usually are. Men oftentimes know what they want, and when someone is unwilling to give it, they just… take it. I don’t know what I would do if a...