TESSA.
I sat on the concrete bench outside the hospital, hugging my arms around myself as if they could hold me together. They couldn’t. Nothing could. My brain felt like it had been scooped out and replaced with noise. My chest still throbbed in that slow, heavy way that made every breath feel like dragging air through a clogged pipe.
I shouldn’t be here. I knew that. The security told me to go home. My body told me to lie down before I fell. My lungs told me they were done trying.
But I wasn’t leaving.
Not until Damien came out.
Not until he talked.
Not until these pieces inside me stopped cutting me from the inside out.
My fingers trembled against my knees. I kept rubbing the same spot over and over, trying to calm myself, but nothing seemed to work. My heart wouldn’t slow. My ch
