Affection

The Affection of Love by Anonymous

She believes he will never fully comprehend how he fulfilled her dreams, or how he opened her heart to love and the wonders it can perform. whenever he opens his front door 

he will see flowers and cards with his name on them but 

Would he recognize these flowers as a gift of how much she loves him, how much she misses him, and the things they usually say to each other, but it is in the way they act to show the affection of love they had for each other? She laughed at the sight of him when they first met. There was love in the air. For her, there was no need to ask for more, but for him, it was too much to bear. Her feelings for him are unforgettable, but only for a short time. She found that affection is nothing more than something made up in her head. The guy she is obsessed over is not real but only a figure of her imagination she loved so hard for each man she met until it was too much for her. She hoped this man would be the one she obsessed over him for months; her affection was too strong. Will she find love again? Will her affection towards someone be real for once? He was the affection taking over her mind and making her go insane. 

Love by Carolina Balcarcel

The distant sounds of birds chirping fill your ears as you lay spread across the grass. Your hands grasp at the greenery beneath you, feeling the blades of grass prick at the palms of your hands. The cool smoothness of it soothes the disturbance like an apology, and after you release it from the tight grip of your fingers you raise your palms to face the gentle sun above you. There’s a cool breeze today, but you hardly feel it from the sun warming your body like a comforting embrace. As you become aware of your surroundings, you turn your head to see your friends sitting next to you, and your ears stray from the sounds of the Earth to hear what they are talking about. They are laughing, you notice, and the sounds fill your ears and hum throughout your body. It’s a happy sound, and as you slowly sit up to stare at the sight in front of you, you notice the crinkles in their eyes and the dimples in their cheeks. They look content and carefree, and you take in the sight with wondrous awe. The stress, the anxieties, all the things you were agonizing over seem to go away. The grip your head had over your heart that had taken over your life so violently and overpoweringly was now a distant memory. You slowly take the grass in your hands again as the breeze makes your hair billow in the wind, and with it your worries. Your friends turn to you, eyes bright and smiling. 

“You finally woke up. “ One of them chuckles. 

And as you stare at them with wide, disbelieving eyes, you feel your shoulders sagging and a sense of tentative, joyfully welcomed peace washes over you. You had forgotten who you were. You had forgotten the very thing that defined you, the very thing that made you who you were and what made you live how you lived. The singing of the birds, the warmth of the sun, the soothing grass, the loving wind. It all filled you with something. The laughter of your friends, the pure joy emanating from them, the smile on their faces. What was it? You meet your friends’ expectant gazes with a fond look not quite like you, but you didn’t mind letting your facade down for this moment.

“Yeah, “ You sigh shakily, overcome with the sudden surge of emotions inside of you. “I did. “ You tip your head to the side and gave your friends a gentle smile. A smile, you realize. You hadn’t really smiled in ages. And yet here you were, a true grin stretching across your face as a playful expression took over like you never had anything to worry about in the first place. At that, one of your friends lets out a grumble, the other shaking their head fondly, and another rolling their eyes with poorly hidden affection as they all turn their attention away from you for a moment. They start complaining, about how you took a nap while they worked hard to get the picnic ready, about how you apparently snore, about little things that make real, bubbling happiness fill up your chest. It escapes your throat as a bark of laughter. You feel your eyes start to get glassy as you know. You know what it is.

It’s love. 

Why Play the Game?

by Jamie Green-Rost

Affection, is a thing that all people crave, and for what? People say that they want this firey desire to be loved by a destined soulmate, or to be understood by someone. One day you think you find that special someone because they ask you how your day was, or what you're doing at that moment, and you connect with them over time. You lust for the flirt they give off and habromania takes effect, you get lost in the attention, and affection they show you. Over time you become more confident in yourself due to the simple fact that you feel like you’re locked in with your person. This staggering feeling that has been created keeps you up at night waiting for his texts, and his calls. You can’t fall asleep thanks to the thought that you’ll see him tomorrow, and even a glimpse of his smile gives you the hardest butterflies in your stomach. They flutter and you reflect back to how this is the most elated you’ve been in a while. Over time everything stays neutral and you are on cloud nine thinking to yourself that you won. You make plans to go out with him; the excitement fills your body because you have never been so thankful for someone in your life. You get there and your heart drops because you see him with her the one you had fear of in the back of your mind. Those thoughts of him and her back together sitting on all your happiness this whole time, but you push them to the side because of how optimistic you’ve been because he was your weakness. All of the calls, connections, and things you have done together just melt away because he didn’t really care. You’re the one who looks like a fool because you fell too far and hard for him when he didn’t even come close to the emotion you showed to him. The tears start to fall and you call him out later that night he says he wasn’t serious or sure about what he wanted, but you know what you wanted, you wanted to be loved. All the feelings stay with you while he moves on, and you start to struggle because you fell for the affection you’ve craved just like everyone else. The game that no one should play due to the fact you end up with a lacerating ending.