you fall in love at 14 with the kindest boy you know. his eyes sparkle and his laugh sounds like windchimes dancing in the wind and you are so in love. you find all the things you have in common with him and store it in the warmest part of your heart and you take it out to look at it in the coldest days. you are so in love but you can't be so you drag sharp fingernails over your love-softened heart and it bleeds and hurts. at the dead of the night, you wonder if your mother will look at the love in your heart and scoff at it, a child's fancy. but it's not a child's fantasy, it is a lonely kid's desperation for a friend, it is the touch of the kindest thing that has ever touched you. The boy you love looks at another, fondness in his eyes and you stand there, two iced teas clutched with naivety and the wounds in your love-softened heart hardens into scars. you don't know it now but years down the line, the boy with the kindest heart will soften your sharp fingernails so you don't drag them across your skin anymore.
