So I stayed in here, the boy’s heartbeat drumming in my ear, and after a few moments, everything had calmed. My tears stopped, my breathing got slower and more steady, and I couldn’t hear my parents anymore. Just his heart, pumping heavy and fast and in a constant, perfect pace like a metronome, unchanging. At some point I dropped my hand from my mouth, my arms hanging limply at my sides, but he never let me go. And the beating in his chest lulled me until my eyes grew too heavy to keep open anymore. Exhaustion took over, and before I knew it, I was lost in it. In his warmth. In his arms. In
...more
