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i. "quantify your love for me," i said as i traced the constellation of freckles on his molten caramel skin. his lips curve into a smile against my cheek.
ii. "achilles and patroclus."
iii. i turn to look at him, eyebrows furrowed, "do you mean that?" there is a painful hesitation in my voice and he hears it.
you're going to leave me.
iv. a memory like a knife pierces me, "you are difficult to love," my mother had said flatly, eyes hollow with scorn in that moment as though the child before her was not her son but the burning reminder of the man who promised her love but left her with a wound for a heart, my father.
v. sensing me pulling away, he tugged me onto his lap and pressed his palms against my thighs, barring me from trying to escape.
"of course i do," his forehead creased with a frown. he grabbed my chin, "look at me."
vi. and i look at him and i look at him and i look at him---
and i see in his eyes a raw tenderness like religion. like worship. i look at him and in the hard set of his jaw, i see that he would rip the sky in two for me as achilles would for patroclus.
vii. i look at him and i know, i know, i would follow him to death as patroclus would for achilles.
viii. the gods in the heavens above us rumble with laughter. laugh because hector destroyed achilles and patroclus--and we too; the two broken boys who dared to love like gods,
