Pen Pal

by J.T. Geissinger

I read somewhere that grief is more than an emotion. It’s a physical experience,

…

too. All kinds of nasty stress chemicals get released into the bloodstream when a person is grieving. Fatigue, nausea, headaches, dizziness, food aversion, insomnia… The list of side-effects is long.

.

I’ve always had a problem over-empathizing with other people, which is one of the reasons I tend to keep to myself. Everyone else’s emotions piled on top of my own can get suffocating sometimes.

“Even small dragons can still breathe fire.”

“Because I think you’re beautiful. Sad, a little bitchy, but fucking beautiful. I want you to come home with me tonight.”

“My plan is to get you naked and find out how you sound when you come.”

That surprises me. I’m not prone to liking people in general. I mildly distrust most people until I get to know them better, which is usually when I decide I don’t ever want to see them again.

I want him to take me out of my head and keep me there, because it’s a dark and scary place I’d rather not spend too much time in.

“Everything. I want every fucking thing you have to give me, Kayla. And I want you to give it to me without hesitation. Without question. And without regret.”

“Here in this bed, this is what happens: I give. You take. You’ll take and you’ll take until you break, then you’ll beg me to break you all over again.”

A handsome stranger with secrets in his eyes and a way of looking at me as if he already knows everything there is to know about me. As if I’m a book he’s read a thousand times and highlighted all his favorite passages. As if he already knows how this is going to end.

“Hell is a state of mind, my dear. Reality is simply what we believe it to be. Each of us make our own truths, even ghosts.”

“I know you think I’m strong. But the problem with strong things is that they’re brittle. They can’t bend under stress. They just break.”

“I’m only amazing when I’m with you. The rest of the time, I’m nobody.”