But Maybe What I Saw As Fearless

You Chose Us. Now We Have To Choose You.

I Tell Myself, As Sternly As Possible, That Is How Things Work Here. We Do Dangerous Things And People Die. People Die, And We Move On To The Next Dangerous Thing. The Sooner That Lesson Sinks In, The Better Chance I Have At Surviving Initiation.

Hearing Him Talk About His Mother, About His Intact Family, Makes My Chest Hurt For A Second, Like Someone Pierced It With A Needle.

This Concept Could Easily Have Gone Awry. Stories About Love Tend To Go That Way Sometimes. They Wander Into The Realm Of Cheese And Never Return, Which I Think Is A Shame, Because There Is A Way To Write About Romantic Love Without Breaking Out The Velveeta.

No One's Perfect," I Whisper. "it Doesn't Work That Way. One Bad Thing Goes Away, And Another Bad Thing Replaces It." I Traded Cowardice For Cruelty; I Traded Weakness For Ferocity.