This Time It's Real

by Ann Liang

My first time exchanging numbers with a boy, and it feels like I’m organizing a bank robbery or something.

“That sounds like a horrible idea,” I tell him. My palms actually feel a little clammy at the thought.

walking faster, as if I can somehow outpace my own embarrassment.

And this, I think, is my ultimate fatal flaw. Missing people who don’t miss me back.

because you never believed in any of it anyway. But telling the truth—saying exactly what you mean, how you feel, to the people you care about most … That’s one of the hardest things in the world. Because you have to trust them. Trust that they won’t hurt you, even when they have the power to.