‘At Least You’re Young Enough to Start Again’: What Not to Say to a Friend Getting Divorced at Thirty
An Exploration of Desire: Recognising Asexuality, Alongside Illness and Trauma, as Valid
As a teenager, I fantasised about the perfect kiss. Kissing in heavy rain, in someone’s car, in a booth in a bar I would someday be old enough to go to. I watched teen rom-coms and read YA romance – enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, slow burn – and pictured carving out a love with someone like that. I rarely thought about sex. When I did, it existed in some faraway land that I did not feel any big need to visit…
‘If You Don’t Understand What It’s Like to be Sexually Abused, that is a Privilege’: To The First Boy I Loved After My Assault
Instead of doubting you, I doubted myself. It wasn’t until I heard what you did to other women that I felt like what had happened to me was valid. In all the sweet nothings I wanted you to whisper to me, you decided you wanted nothing to do with me. Our relationship lasted two-hundred-eighty-one days. You burned everything; you burnt me with it…