the thing about summer storms is that they always sneak up on you. unexpected, practically uninvited: bearing overcast & gales & sheets of rain.
you think, that,knownmight’veyou
HI! I’M AXEL!
contrary to your tendency for the dramatic, there’s no lightning spark to the heart when your eyes meet for the first time, (no, that happens later, with a third—)
from the start.
FOUNDLIZZIE!U! C U LATER! WAITGTGI
the heavens do rumble, but that’s just the gravitational force of this tempest of a boy, with their lightning-quick smile and thunder-worthy presence, a sort of magnetism that raises the hair on your skin and brightensyourday.
—only;
stupidly, foolishly, you think you have them caught like lightning in a bottle—
...Is it okay for us to be here right now? what’s this? THIS IS FOR YOU TWO! LOOK! the other thing about summer storms—wondrous as they are— is that they are transient.
quick to come, but just as quick they could leave (you behind, in the midst of a whirlwind path of their making)
an entity you can’t keep still.
how do you love the storm personified?
you want to see them both smile.
Adin?
let’s storm-chasing.go
regardless of the winds, a path is a path.
you think—not that they ever abided by one—it could also be an invitation.
SOME DAYS, IT FEELS AS IF YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR OWN. YOUR BINDER CHOKES YOUDUTY& & FAMILY JERK YOUTHIS WAY, & THAT, BUT TONIGHT,YOU’RE
STEPS TO YOUR SHOTS IN SOULMATES THELUCKY& YOU’RE
THESE DAYS, YOU FEEL
G R A V I T A T I
O N A L
HI! woah
THERE’S THIS GIRL WITH LIGHTNING IN HER EYES, AND YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH THEM BOTH, AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER TOO.
THERE’S THIS BOY WHO’S GOT YOUR HEARTSTRINGS ALL TANGLED UP WITH HIS IN THE WIND, AND YOU’RE NEVER LETTING GO.
Man, warn a guy next time, adin, c’mere too—
YOU MISSED THIS WHEN THE STORM FIRST LED YOU AWAY, AND YOU DON’T WANT TO SPEND ANOTHER MINUTEAWAY. WHAT’S BETTER THAN THE TWO PEOPLE YOU LOVE MOST, LOVING EACH OTHER, TOO? THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO, OTHER STORMS TO CHASE, BUT RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, IS EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER WANTED. & THE WORLD CAN WAIT.
If you think back far enough, along the murky places of memory, you can pinpoint the moment your skies blacked out, in more ways than one. no, i swear we turned r— huh? THIS WAY!
–ELIZABETH AND I PROMISE WE’RE NOT LOST; DO YOU WANT TO COME WITH US?
AXEL & THIS IS LIZZIE–
goddamit axel let them answer IS
That day on you learned how to breathe in water; they flooded your lungs each(and other’s) with kindness and love and you thought: Hey!
You were lost in a weird space and so were they, but they didn’t let you hesitate then, and never now.
elizabeth.first HI! MY NAME
You could be their lighthouse; their anchor holding them home through the storms;
before you realized, you were mistakened: because they WERE the storm.
And what are you to stop a force of nature on its path? ADIN, I HAVELEAVETO Adin, I want to gochasingstormSo you hold your breath and you stay behind while they run into the storm and chase things bigger thanyou.
In the petrichor the flowers will grow, and you will fix your waterlogged gears so that they function again
when the sky is clear.
ADIN!
Well—I figured, you two knew what you wanted; and I didn’t want to slow you down.Guess
None of that matters without you there.
transient, FORCEFUL, Whoverwhelming—
what? I thought you were gone already? after the storm?
why would we go on without you?
Sorry. you—NO!
I’m just not cut out for chasing storms.
Oh—
I THOUGHT IT WAS OBVIOUS! you and your dumb metaphors Hypocrite, E.
I, uh, I love you guys too.
because we love you.
This project was supported by the LGBTQ Youth Initiative. The LGBTQ Youth Initiative is led by Planned Parenthood Toronto in collaboration with Sherbourne Health Centre, LGBT Youth Line, The 519 Church Street Community Centre, Gender-Based Violence Prevention Office, Toronto District School Board, Central Toronto Youth Services, Griffin Centre and Egale TheCanada.LGBTQ Youth Initiative has been made possible through the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Dinaly Tran, Anna Penner, and all the other YLI members for your support. Also, always, my friends(cum-editors-cum-cheerleaders), who read this when it was far from good, and made better than I ever could’ve alone. Thank you to all the artists, writers, and creators out there who share their work online, because every day I come across something that blows my mind and inspires me to create.
And to you, the reader! Thanks for giving us a chance.
