By E.C., TIWP Student

Why do you do this to yourself:
dress nicely for a boy who doesn’t care,
ask him how his day was,
even though you already know the answer
(“Good,” without a “How are you?”),
act dumb and pretend you don’t know what a certain phrase means,
just so you have an excuse to talk to him without “being weird.”

Why do you do this to yourself:
smoke your days away
until your eyes are too blurry and too puffy
to see your future plummet to the ground,
drink until you pass out,
just to forget the girl who broke your heart,
then dragged it along behind her,
like she was forcing a dog on a walk.

Why do you do this to yourself:
act like nothing matters to you that much,
so they think you’re cool,
stay at home,
not educating that pretty little mind of yours,
afraid of being too smart for your friends’ liking.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Because we want to be loved.

Because we are scared of the future.

Because we don’t want to hurt again.

Because we are afraid of being judged.

Because people don’t listen with their eyes when we expect them to.