LOVE ME LIKE A CURSE
Rushing felt dangerous, like it might shake something loose.
The apartment looked exactly the same as when I’d left. Shoes by the couch. Throw blanket half-slid onto the floor. The faint, lingering scent of Rhea’s perfume hanging in the air.
Normal.
I went straight to the bathroom.
I turned on the tap and splashed cold water onto my face, again and again, until my skin prickled. Pink tinted the basin briefly before swirling away.
There it was again. Evidence. Gone as quickly as it appeared.
I washed my hands slowly, scrubbing under my nails, along my wrists up my forearms. I rolled my sleeves higher and kept going, as if the sensation itself was the problem. As if friction could erase whatev