Afnan

“The whole summer was inside of us.”
― Leah Raeder, Black Iris

“Then why’d you do it?”

“Jealousy,” she said without hesitation. “It always comes down to something crude. Don’t kid yourself, Keating. It’s human nature.”
― Leah Raeder, Black Iris

“He looked at me in a way that felt like being touched, like a blind man seeing with his fingers, mapping my bones and skin in his mind. I felt weirdly exposed. Seen.

“It’s not what you think,” he said.

“What do I think?”

“I’m not that good. I can’t read minds.”

Then read my body, I thought, but he only smiled.

“Tell me something.” He leaned closer, his voice raspy at the edges, charred. “If you hate human connection so much, why come with us?”

Because I don’t hate it. I hate how much I need it.

Because you’re the ones I was waiting for.”
― Leah Raeder, Black Iris

“I wouldn't have to explain that I fall in love with minds, not genders or body parts.”
― Leah Raeder, Black Iris