#Chapter18
Rejection
I say nothing, just stay deathly still, silent tears escaping from my closed eyes as they begin to pour down my face. Warm, bitter, stinging, rivulets of despair. He can feel me and hear my thoughts, so he knows my acceptance is in my silence. My pain is his, my distraught agony in knowing this is over before it began is all around, and in between us. He knows what to do. His breathing gets heavier, labored, as he struggles to compose himself and push the last of the words out in a voice I barely recognize; low and strained. Ravaged and hoarse. He clears his throat and swallows loudly again as though to pull himself together.
