a year ago, there was a girl and a boy. the girl was lonely and restless, and tired of how empty home felt after her dad moved out and how dark it was in the morning when she got up for work and how she drifted through her days unnoticed by her classmates. she used her money on clothes and makeup in the hopes that looking different would make her feel like someone. she dreamed of moving to faraway places because maybe, far far away, the world would pay attention to her. she caught the eye of a boy, a quiet and sad boy who was afraid to be around her. but she knew deep down they were both sad and lonely, and she knew they both went home at night to feel passed over by the world. so one day they were alone, and she asked him if he wanted to hang out with her and get tea on the weekend, and he didn't know what to say, so he went. fast forward, and they hold hands. and they kiss, first an awkward peck on the lips and then deeper and softer with tongue and with warm hands reaching over and then under each others' clothes. and they hold each other, for warmth in the cold nights of winter and through sadness stronger than the bright lights of summer. his family moves, and he moves his stuff into an apartment. she fills it with her clothes and hairpins and leftover food from work. he fills her car with empty diet soda cans. they fill each other's lives. once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl. they were naiive and weak, and had they been alone, the world probably would have chewed them up and sucked them down into the spiraling, dark abyss of life. life felt to them like an endless free-fall in a variable gravitational field. but a miracle happened--they found each other. they held on for dear life, knowing that neither was stable enough to anchor them, but if they held onto each other, the free-fall would be tolerable. they learned to hold on to each other.