I spent sunny summers inside my mother’s midwestern

apartment writing you and your friends, heavily inspired by emo

culture I’d seen charictures of in local malls alongside HotTopic walls:

prominent swoop bangs and all. I made sure you were decorated in the

peak emo styles I’d seen all around me in the 2010’s. I remember the second

drawing I’d made of you; your lengthy black hair fell in a neat wave

over your grey turtleneck, and you stood calmly with that sword made of

“Starnian” steel, as I’d described it at the time. I cringe now when I see the word emo.