you.

I THINK I FELL IN LOVE WHEN I FIRST SAW YOU, BUT you were terrified. You were a small, wounded girl—alone, underground—and I was a dark figure emerging from the shadows. A black boy in a hoodie. A man in a place no one could hear you scream.

You pulled yourself into a ball, your eyes closed tight, and even then, before I knew you, my first instinct was to put my arms around you, to rock you until you stopped shaking. I kneeled next to you and babbled until you calmed down. Somehow I convinced you that you were safe, that I wouldn’t hurt you, and the relief in your eyes when you finally looked at me took my breath away, like you had been waiting for me to find you.

In that moment, I knew our lives would be linked. I knew I had been waiting for you to find me, too.