-Caspian Grayson:
I stay quiet for a long time.
Not because I don't know what he's asking me.
But because my mind does what it always does first—it tries to break it apart into pieces, find the risks, the meanings hidden underneath, the possible ways this could go wrong if I don't think carefully enough.
Kyle's words don't change.
They just sit there.
Would you want to be my boyfriend?
And the more I replay it, the less complicated it starts to feel.
That's what frustrates me most at first.
Because I'm used to things feeling complicated. I'm used to needing time, space, distance from my own thoughts just to understand what I actually feel versus what I'm afraid of feeling.
But he doesn't interrupt me.
He just waits.
Like he already said what he needed to say, and now it's my turn to decide what I do with it.
And slowly… my thoughts stop running in circles.
Not completely.
But enough that I can actually hear myself again underneath them.
I look at him.
