This Is What It Looks Like When Boys Cry

✶ "I don't need anyone." (Reality caves when they're sick, alone, and no one checks on them because they trained everyone not to.)

✶ "I'm over it." (Caves when they see their ex happy with someone else and realize they've been paused for three years.)

✶ "It wasn't that bad." (Caves when they see someone else experience the same thing and feel protective rage they never felt for themselves.)

✶ "I work better under pressure." (Caves at 4am when their hands won't stop shaking and they can't remember the last time they ate.)

✶ "They'll come back." (Caves when someone new sits in their usual spot and the world didn't actually stop turning.)

✶ "I'm not like my parents." (Caves mid-argument when they hear their mother's exact words coming out of their mouth.)

✶ "I just need to be thinner/richer/smarter/better." (Caves when they achieve the goal and the emptiness is still there, unchanged, patient.)

✶ "I can quit whenever I want." (Caves when they try to stop for one day and their body betrays them with withdrawal, need, panic.)

✶ "Time heals everything." (Caves on the ten-year anniversary when it hurts exactly the same.)

✶ "I'm protecting them by staying away." (Caves when they find out the person spent years thinking they weren't wanted, weren't loved.)

✶ "It's not abuse if I provoked it." (Caves when they see a child get yelled at for nothing and want to shield them from everything.)

✶ "I don't deserve better." (Caves when someone treats them with basic kindness and they break down crying in a Starbucks bathroom.)

✶ "Asking for help is weakness." (Caves when they physically can't do it alone anymore and pride becomes a luxury they can't afford.)

✶ "People leave, that's just how it is." (Caves when someone stays through the ugly and they realize they've been the one pushing everyone away.)

✶ "I'm too damaged for love." (Caves when someone looks at their scars and doesn't flinch.)

✶ "Success will make me happy." (Caves at the top of the ladder when the view is just lonelier, higher up.)

✶ "They didn't mean it like that." (Caves when the same pattern repeats and excuses run out and they're tired, so tired of translating cruelty into kindness.)

✶ "I'm fine being alone." (Caves during a random Tuesday evening when the silence becomes a physical weight crushing their chest.)

✶ "Emotions are weakness." (Caves when they feel nothing at their own parent's funeral and realize they've amputated part of their humanity.)

Happy Birthday Trayvon Martin

Rest in Power