“How can you say that?! How can you forgive them when they damaged you oh so terribly?!” The boy pleaded, taking the hands of the one he loved most.

The girl’s eyes glistened with tears. “Because they’ve been through things too. My family is filled with nothing but hate, and if I just forgive them, then it’ll be all over. They’ll just—“

“Stop it, love. Just stop,” The boy said. “They took your childhood away. You owe them nothing.

His gaze moves from the deep circles under her eyes, to the bruises on her arms, to the cuts on her legs.

“Your mother and father give you these bruises and scars without remorse, and while your suffering, instead of saving you, your big sister leaves you behind. That doesn’t sound like a family to me.”

Like a wilted flower, the girl sinks into the boy’s arms. “I’m sorry, it’s just…I don’t know.” Her mind was scrambled, too deep in sadness to get the words out of her mouth. The only one she had left was someone who could be gone from her life at any moment. Fate could take him if it wished, as it was a tricky force.

“It’s okay, my rose,” The boy said, smiling. “Let your sadness out. I can take it.”

Wrapping her arms around him, she sobbed into his shoulder. The salty tears soaked in the sleeve of his favorite shirt. “I don’t understand, how do you love someone damaged like me?”

Gently rubbing her back, the boy said,

“Every rose has its thorns. If someone expects one with a perfect stem, then they don’t deserve a rose at all.”

For the first time in years, the words of another made the girl smile.