I stand silent, breathing in through my nose and out my mouth. Tonight’s argument is years of frustration stacked and hidden, too tall to push away anymore. A little trigger is all it takes, and we end up like this, saying things we don’t mean, taking our aggravation out on each other.
My heart pumps misguided love.
“This isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” it beats. “But that’s your boy—aimless and crazy for you.”
Knowing that I had a role on his spiral to the bottom kills me. As his parents continue to fail him, I should be the one that steps forward and says, “This is wrong.”
But to do so at this point in his madness would be betrayal, and I have to handle his trust with care.
Inhaling an uneven breath, I watch him under the moon’s glow washing out his already pale complexion. Icy wind blows my boy’s white tee against his slender body under his unzipped hoodie, and his hands shake at his sides.
Mary Elizabeth is an up and coming author who finds words in chaos, writing stories about the skeletons hanging in your closets. Known as The Realist, she is one half of The Elizabeths–a duo brave enough to never hide the truth.
Mary was born and raised in Southern California. She is a wife, mother of four beautiful children, and dog tamer to one enthusiastic Pit Bull and a prissy Chihuahua. She’s a hairstylist by day but contemporary fiction, new adult author by night. Mary can often be found finger twirling her hair and chewing on a stick of licorice while writing and rewriting a sentence over and over until it’s perfect. She discovered her talent for tale-telling accidentally, but literature is in her chokehold. And she’s not letting go until every story is told.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”–Jeremiah 17:9
A soft spoken revolutionary, love’s listener was born on Bastille Day. she dance-walks under the stars and prefers to write while the sun wakes up. her blood marks State Avenue. her roots are darker than trouble’s eyes, and her favorite colour is The 1975.
Sarah Elizabeth is the author of Innocents, Delinquents, Don’t Let Me Go, and various other projects under various other pen names. for more information, visit: