Icebreaker

by A.L. Graziadei

Have you ever hated someone so much you wanna suffocate them with your own tongue

It’s the first time I’ve ever heard him say my first name, and he makes it sound rough, seductive, infuriating.

I don’t want to go. But I also don’t want to work on this paper, or sit in my room, or exist at all, really. So I guess it doesn’t make a difference.

“Same page?” he asks softly, a slight tremor in his voice. “Same page,” I almost whisper.

“You don’t need a reason to be depressed,” I say automatically. “It’s chemistry.”

“I hate you.” “Prove it.”

Depression doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve been through, she said. It’s an illness that can happen to anyone.