Amanda Wong

“You’re a coward,” he whispers. “You want to be with me and it terrifies you. And you’re ashamed,” he says. “Ashamed you could ever want someone like me. Aren’t you?” He drops his gaze and his nose grazes mine and I can almost count the millimeters between our lips. I’m struggling to focus, trying to remember that I’m mad at him, mad about something, but his mouth is right in front of mine and my mind can’t stop trying to figure out how to shove aside the space between us.
“You want me,” he says softly, his hands moving up my back, “and it’s killing you.”
I jerk backward, breaking away, hating my body for reacting to him, for falling apart like this. My joints feel flimsy, my legs have lost their bones. I need oxygen, need a brain, need to find my lungs—
“You deserve so much more than charity,” he says, his chest heaving. “You deserve to live. You deserve to be alive.” He’s staring at me, unblinking.
“Come back to life, love. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“There is nothing to fear. Nothing to worry about. Grieve nothing in this transitionary world. It's the only way I know how to exist. In a world where there is so much to grieve and so little good to take? I grieve nothing. I take everything. Ignite, my love. Ignite.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“You are perfect," he says. "Every inch of you. Perfect," he says again. "Don't hide from me.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

“If you hide your heart, he will never be able to take it from you.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me