when a girl tells you she loves you, do not close your eyes. When she opens her palms to you as if to show you a million shining words she never meant, do not put your empty palm against hers full of lies, do not press the words she never meant to your heart like the lilacs you pressed into your journal before you knew that love came with a price. When a girl tells you she loves you, do not thrust your wrists out begging for her cuffs, do not bend your head to bow before her, do not allow yourself to be owned by those words. She does not deserve that. When a girl tells you she loves you realize that what she really means is this is the part when I drift away until all you have to hold on to are the missed phone calls and preset texts. Now is when I leave your side until you fall as if to be caught and you crash hard onto the cement of reality. When you stand you will still walk with a limp, and the scars on your wrists from when you tried to catch yourself will always remind you that I wasn’t there. When a girl tells you she loves you understand that what she’s really saying is let me spread you on my skin so someday I can wash you off, smother me beneath your veins so someday I can crawl back out and blame you for everything that happened.