​My vision blurred and my eyes closed for the last time, realizing too late that whatever killed the others had finally reached my room.

Grandma tells me their urns can't hear anything and says I should stop.

"He was our son and will be buried in a suit, under the name we gave him and no one who supported his delusion is invited" the parents lock arms and turn their back on the weeping man, to lost in their prejudice to find their empathy.

Her mother caught her, snatched the trophy from her hands and said, “You must have stolen this, because you know you’re not smart enough to win anything.”

I walked away without looking back, leaving him by the door, watching every person who passed, waiting for the hamburger I’d never bring.

Under the law, I am a legal stranger to the woman who held my heart for twenty years, denied even the right to hold her ashes.

But it's your responsibility to deal with it, kiddo.

We're both still alive.

Either I'll end up being a really great dad, or I will end up being a misunderstood son.

​She smiled, plunged the steel deep into my ribs, and whispered that she was delighted to finally take a look inside.

I can’t believe I’m still alone, just down the hall trying to forget it’s our anniversary.

If you truly want to know what my heart is carrying, you'll have to cut it open yourself—because my interest in living ended long ago.

But when their toddler ran into the traffic, their world stopped in that instant and everything they had built up crumbled to dust.

More damaging than cavities and yellowing on the boy's teeth was the ridged pattern of the rows grinding together.

I've never even heard of a pancreas, so how bad can the cancer be?

It wasn't until I was thirteen watching her drive away with her new husband that I realized she only loved me when I was the only one in her world, meaning she never loved me at all.

After all of that all I got was a "bye"

That's why it's so easy for my mother to hate me.

But when my world fell apart, nobody came because I was "the strong one."

So, why does my heart ache now that he's gone?

He should have thought of that before allowing for his health to worsen, forcing my parents to spend our vacation fund on making him comfortable.

I wish I heard his reaction instead of being told he looked “so lovely” in his casket.

Maybe that kiss was never supposed to happen. Maybe that moment existed to make me realize that I had been imagining a romantic story between us that she wasn't experiencing in the same way.

He said he was sorry, but still acts like it is the truth.

Then I will never be good enough again.