"I love you."
Time ceases to exist. It's me and Liam, who is looking scared, and red-eyed as tears run down his godlike face.
I love you.
How many times have I heard that? Those three words? The first time I heard them, I was elated. The second time, they were used to take something from me. The third time, they were flung to me as a blanket to cover the shame that clung to me, to act as a reason for the things that occurred to me.
When I first heard them, I was young. Alone and lonely. But then this boy told me he felt the same way I did, even though I always thought it would be forever one-sided.
But then hope flared in my chest. I was the happiest that day. It didn't matter, because I had found out my first love loved me back.