hold your nose
and
close your eyes.

■

Why? 

Why must the world treat good people like this? 

Treat them to the point where they don't even want to live anymore. Where they feel numb, as if happiness was an unknown visitor in their mind of darkness. All they feel is numb. 

Peggy felt numb as she stood on top of the school building, the wind blowing through her hair as a cool chill fell down her spine. 

The world had finally done it. 

It had broken Peggy Schuyler. 

She couldn't take it anymore. 

She wrote a few words in the front of her broken down copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, and left it on her bed in John and Alex's apartment. 

Maybe no one would ever find it, and her legacy would be nothing but dust in the air. Maybe it would be found, but no one would care to read it. 

But who the fuck cares now? 

She looked out into the city in front of her, taking in the air of her once happy home. The lights shined in her eyes as tears fell, far onto the ground underneath her. 

On three. 

One. 

Two. 

Three- 

"Peggy?" 

Peggy whipped her head around, her hair falling onto her cheeks and sticking to the wet tears. James appeared blurry in her vision as he walked closer, reaching out his hand slowly. 

"Peggy, no, please," he pleaded. 

She sniffed and backed away from his hand, wincing as he tried to progress further. 

"Okay, okay, I won't touch." he said, taking a step back. "Can we talk, though?" 

She nodded softly, making James have to rethink himself before speaking. 

"I've missed you." 

Peggy's face crumpled as tears welled in her eyes. She fell onto her knees, James' enveloping her figure as she did. 

And she broke. 

(307 words)