“I’m OK.” She got tired of saying it. “I’m OK.” I knew she did.

“I’m fine.”

“Everything’s good.” Her smile would stretch wide across her face but I knew better. Her smile is a fake, a sham. Spreading across her face like paint; spilling and tipping until it cracked and chipped and eventually rusted.

“I’m… fine.” Her eyes were so- so tired, sinking into her face. Her long dark hair is so long and bleak. Her shoulders are slumped, and her porcelain skin was cracking right before my very eyes. She was about to shatter.

I take a step forward and wrap my arms around her frail shoulders. She’s skin and bones so I know she’s not been eating. “You’re not OK.” I whisper against her hair that smell’s like strawberry’s and rasberry’s fused together.

I can feel her exhale against my body, melting into me.

“I know you’re not. You can’t hide if from me.” I can feel her shoulders start to shake in my arms and feel her hot breath at my shoulder. She’s crying silently, worse than any scream of agony ever heard. I can feel her pain seep into my very pores, spilling into my soul. I wrap my hand around the back of her head and hold her body to mine, taking her in.

“You can’t hide it.” I say again. “You never could.” My voice falter’s and I close my eyes and press my cheek into her silken hair. “Shhh.” I can feel her hands claw at my back, her nails biting into my skin. I press closer until I knew that no space was between us, that we had become one whole. A single person. I wrap my arms around her, tighter.