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.