thinking about as they grow older, Andrew and Neil eventually stop wearing their armbands. by the time they’re 27-30, they simply stop seeing the point. they’re grown men now, and they’ve reached a place where they genuinely couldn’t care less about the way strangers look at them. Neil is the first to let them go. with a mouth as sharp as his, he’ll verbally tear apart anyone who says something bad about that, and besides, the scars cover nearly every part of his body anyway. two black armbands wrapped around his forearms have never made him look any less scarred, so one day he simply decides, fuck it. If you want to stare, go ahead. Andrew takes longer. for most of his life, hiding his scars had never really been about the scars themselves. It was about never giving anyone another reason to see him as vulnerable. when he was alone, when every day was spent under someone else’s control, when trust was something that had to be earned twice over, and when there wasn’t a single person his own age with whom he could truly let his guard down—covering them had made sense. (I’ve always thought of Wymack and Bee as vertical relationships in Andrew’s life: dependable adult figures rather than equals.) but that was before Neil. before Andrew discovered what it felt like to trust another person with both his body and his soul. before he realized that, for the first time in his life, he wasn’t alone anymore. that there was someone who stood beside him, not above him, not over him, but beside him. by the time he’s thirty, the idea of someone seeing the scars on his arms feels almost absurd. they no longer define his worth, nor do they expose a weakness for someone to exploit. he knows exactly who he is, and, more importantly, he knows there is someone he can always turn to, someone whose shoulder he can lean on without hesitation. that’s the moment I’m waiting for most. the day they both quietly leave their armbands behind, no longer because the scars have disappeared, but because they’ve finally made peace with the lives that left them there.
gamechangershow
origamiaround
amandla
theartofmadeline
