The Layover

by Lacie Waldon

that you’re better off having no friends at all than having the kind of friends who flit in and out of your life at their own whim.

All my life, I’ve made myself smaller around the people I love. Somehow I even managed to stop growing at a mere five feet. Tiny enough to be portable. Quiet enough to blend into the furniture. Agreeable. Easy. Whatever it takes to keep them from leaving me behind. Anything to keep them from wondering why I’m still there.

That’s what it always comes down to, isn’t it? The choice to live life for today or the future. But what is the future, really? Does it even exist? I keep trying to reach it, but every time I wake up, it’s today again.

“We weren’t made to share food, Jack. Eve gave Adam a bite of her apple, and God punished them both.”