“Have you ever been in love?”
“I think so. Well… now looking back on it I don’t think it was really love. Just wanting to be loved; y’know? So the first thing to tell you you’re beautiful has stolen your heart.”
“That’s not love.”
“Like you’d know.”
“Of course I would!”
“Then, go on, what’s it like?”
“It’s as if there’s a cushion of air between your body and the rest of the world, even at the bottom of your feet, elevating you that much higher off of the ground. And everything you touch feels like one thousand bolts of electricity zapping your brain out of life, until you remove your finger and the electricity leaves, and the only thing left to be seen is his face, or her eyes. All the beautiful things in the world can be reflected in that one name. It’s as if you’ve stepped outside of your insulated world and can finally breathe fresh air. Your imagination’ll run wild but every fictional thing you could ever come up with is somehow related to them.”
“Wow.”
“Yes, wow.”
“Well tell me this – if love feels so… so great and amazing, why do some people only discover it once it’s too late?
“Doubt.”
“’scuse me?”
“Doubt.”
“In what?”
“Love.”
“Come again?”
“If you doubted that this water was warm enough to swim in, you wouldn’t go in. If you doubted you could count to two thousand you’ll never be able to reach a million. If you doubt that that star has any meaning, then the whole night sky becomes black and empty. And if you doubt what you’re feeling is love, then that love cannot exist. Once you realize the water was warm, you can’t go back to the moment and swim. Once you realize you can count to two thousand it’ll be too late to ever reach one million. If you finally understand that each and every star has its purpose, your sky will have been so black for so long that the star won’t want to return. And when you finally admit that love is what you felt, the same love can’t come back.”
“You depress me.”
“Oh? But you didn’t ask me about what happens to people who don’t doubt, and fall in love.”
“Alright, what happens to them?”
“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been in love.”