Have you ever had a girlfriend, Kenji?What? He looks mortally offended. Do I look like the kind of guy who’s never had a girlfriend? Have you even met me?
I love you, Ella. I will love you for the rest of my life. My heart is yours. Please don’t ever give it back to me.
– Warner
I touch the tip of my finger to his lips. “There are secrets in here,” I say. “I want them out.”
He tries to bite my finger.
I steal it back.
His hands are holding my cheeks, and he pulls back just to look me in the eye and his chest is heaving and he says, “I think,” he says, “my heart is going to explode,” and I wish, more than ever, that I knew how to capture moments like these and revisit them forever.
Because this.
This is everything.
You must not resist life when it becomes inconvenient to live. You cannot outrun fear. You should not ignore pain. You will not outlive death.
Kenji snorts.“That’s because you’re not fragile,” Kenji says. “If anything, everyone needs to protect themselves from you. You’re like a freaking beast,” he says. Then adds, “I mean, you know—like, a cute beast. A little beast that tears shit up and breaks the earth and sucks the life out of people.
I love the sight of his naked body.especially in these quiet, vulnerable moments. These brackets of time stapled between dreams and reality are my favorite. There’s a sweetness in this hesitant consciousness – a careful, gentle return of form of function, I’ve found I love these minutes most for the delicate way in which they unfold. It’s tender.Slow motion.Time tying its shoes.
Kenji has a hand pressed to his mouth, desperately trying to suppress a smile. He’s shaking his head, holding up a hand in apology. And then he breaks, laughing out loud, snorting as he tries to muffle the sound. “I’m sorry,” he says, pressing his lips together, shaking his head again. “This is not a funny moment. It’s not. I’m not laughing