IF YOU LOVE ME, DON’T LET GO

"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.