He listened when I was stressed about exams.
He brought soup to my house when I got sick.
And when he laughed, really laughed, he made me laugh too.
Eventually, I fell in love with him, and we started dating.
Unfortunately, everyone else at school decided that made me a joke, too.
I fell in love with him.
“Why are you dating him?”
“You know you could get a normal boyfriend, right?”
“I guess she likes feeling tall.”
At first, the comments hurt.
Then they became background noise.
Or at least, I pretended they did.
“Why are you dating him?”
Elliot usually handled it better than I did. He had years more experience pretending cruel people didn’t matter.
But every now and then, when someone thought he couldn’t hear them, I would catch this tiny flicker in his face.
Like he was tired of having to prove he deserved basic respect.
