excerpt from Jessie Dumont’s I prefer girls, published 2013.

Marcella, I thought, in all the world, I have only one enemy, and that’s you.

You’re the one who’s going to destroy me some day – destroy me with that simple-minded love of yours.  You’re going to love me, and care for me, and take all the punishment from me without a whimper – and eventually, I’ll kill you.

Don’t you see?  If they’d gotten me in time, they might have been able to cure me.  You’re not taking care of me, Marcella – you’re taking care of my disease.

It can’t last forever, Marcella.  Your love is going to kill us both.

I lay back with my hands behind my head.

What was the point of worrying about it?  Marcella and I were already dead.  Nothing was going to happen, no one was coming to save us, things weren’t going to change.  We were dead, and for a corpse there’s no future but the worms.

I fell asleep at last, side by side with Marcella, in our red and empty tomb.

G.