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[write-and-paint-blog]

Prompt: Love is deadly. The more you love, the shorter your life.

(Story prompt found on @writing-prompt-s

Can you imagine loving someone? It is the same thing as stabbing yourself in the heart. It causes pain and suffering and sometimes literal heartbreak. If you thought everything I just said applies to your world, then you’re wrong. In my world, this is literal. Love is deadly. I’ve fallen in love before; biggest mistake of my life. In this world, the longer you love someone, the shorter your life will be. The moment I realized I was in love, I collapsed. A sharp pain in my chest left me gasping for air while holding my throat. I couldn’t breathe and was struggling to see. When you fall in love, you have a short period of extreme pain. It eventually ends, but it cuts off your lifespan. This is what happened to me. I reached all around me for something to hold on to, but all I could grab was him. Him is the guy I fell for, literally. His name was Noah Lopez. I wish I had never met Noah. We met in 4th grade. Of course, being my luck, I was assigned at the same table as him. Let’s say he was…corrupt. He knew all the adult stuff a 4th grader shouldn’t know. He told me these things. We became friends. Really good friends. We talked and went on Skype a lot. We were just genuinely good friends. Until 5th grade. We were in the same class again. At this point, I thought it was safe to call him my best friend. We would call just about every single night. He got me into some gaming and things I thought I would never be interested in. Okay, so I did this because I may have had a massive crush on him, but what does that matter? I was in 5th grade, plus my mom wouldn’t allow me to date. However, that didn’t stop me. We were so close I thought dating was inevitable. I was right. At the end of the 5th grade year, we asked each other out. We told his friend Nick first. Nick was so happy for us. I told my group of friends and everyone was just good with it. Then came summer. We didn’t talk a whole lot, but when we did, Lord, was it romantic. Within a few weeks of dating we knew we liked each other so much more than we had planned. Loved, even. The night he told me he loved me, that’s when the pain hit. That's when I realized I did, too. But we were in love, and I was not about to let some stupid parallel universe ruin that. My friends all told me how risky being in love was. We had even made vows for each other. It was absolutely crazy. But we were absolutely crazy in love. So we ignored them. Another horrible decision. I knew by that point that years were being shaved off of my lifespan. But I was stupid, young, and didn’t care. Another mistake. People in my world always tell me how it cuts off your lifespan. They never told me what it does to you mentally and emotionally. I won’t go into details, but after about 8 months of dating, we split up. A messy break up. I had no more pain after that. None. So here I am now. I’ve begun talking to him more and more once this school year started. I’m in 8th grade now, 2 years after Noah and I split up. I guess we are friends now. But I can feel the pain again. And it won’t leave.