26

I drop my hand from the corner of my mouth because I was about to eat the fucking skin around my thumb. Like a goddamn kid. When I don’t reply, he sends another text. He doesn’t, does he? You wouldn’t be so close if he did. Let me guess, he didn’t know how to deal with your brother when he was diagnosed, and there was probably some form of wedge between them, and you didn’t want that. You don’t want to be discarded by your father, which means you respect him a lot, or you wouldn’t have cared. Maybe that’s why you wear different personas in public and private. You don’t allow anyone, your closest friends and family included, to see what truly lurks beneath the Disney prince image. Are you scared they’ll find you unsightly? Disturbing? You don’t care about acceptance, so what is the true reason, my little monster? I can keep a secret. I scoff at my phone, even if I find his words disturbing. It’s unsettling that he can read me so openly like a damn book. Not all that is true, but much of