Iuri

“I think she's afraid to even hug me now. It's my fault, but I miss it, Andrew. I miss it so much it aches sometimes, you know?'

I do know. I do know, I want to tell him, but I let him talk. And he does, with a gut-wrenching honesty that tears at my heart.

'I want to be held. Is that so wrong? I want to be held, and stroked. I want to know that someone loves me. I want to feel it on my skin.' He looks at the ceiling and exhales, then meets my eyes again. 'But nobody touches me anymore. Not even when I have a fever. Mom just hands me a thermometer now.' He drops his eyes and his ears redden. 'Even when you kiss me, you don't touch me. It's like I'm a leper or something. I can hardly keep my hands off of you, but it's not the same for you, is it?”
― J.H. Trumble, Where You Are

“Nate?”
“Luke?”
He smiled at that. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
I didn’t answer. Because I did. And this wasn’t it.”
― J.H. Trumble, Don't Let Me Go

“I figured if I was tired enough, I wouldn’t miss Travis.
Which kind of worked, until after the three o’clock fussing-wombat feed and I got back into bed and his side of the bed was cold.

Or until I tripped over his laundry that he’d left on the bathroom floor. That he always left on the bathroom floor.

Or until I sat at the table at breakfast time and his chair was too damn empty. There was no smartarse comments, no bursts of laughter. His blue eyes didn’t spark with humour and his sandy-blond hair didn't spike out just so.

There was no foot-holding under the table.”
― N.R. Walker, Red Dirt Heart 3

“How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe