To Have And Not To Hold

Author: Cleo

I keep collecting people the way some guys collect knives. I get them close, learn their voice, their smell, let them think they’re special. Then the second they lean in like they might stay, something in me switches off. I don’t leave. I just stop being there. I want them so badly it makes my teeth hurt, but I can’t stand being held. So I keep them half-close, close enough to feel the heat, far enough that they never quite get their hands around me. And when they finally get tired of reaching, I feel that quiet satisfaction mixed with the usual emptiness.