all I said was that I’m inexperienced | what I meant was | “i’m afraid of disappointing you” | but you didn’t have to tell me that | you would have rather preferred an experienced girl | see, what you meant to say was; “i wanted a better girl than you” | girls who know what they’re doing | who aren’t second guessing your love | who are beautiful | of course i lashed out, anger tinged in alcohol | ...

From a good distance away she watched the building burn and collapse into further despair, sinking in on itself. The heat singed her skin.

Asphalt pooled beneath her feet. Leland burned on the ground floor, his charred blood painting the wall in which he was thrown against. In all her medical experience she didn’t understand what she saw before her: his legs fractured into thousands of splinters,...