How to break my heart:

Step 1: Smile at me when my breath smells sleepy and my eyes are drooping, so my pulse quickens and my mind wakes up. Reach out and touch gently the pools of skin next to my shy smile. I’ll be in love with you by the end of the day.

Step 2: Touch me when you don’t need to, small brushes to move hair out of my face, or tiny touches on my palm with your fingertips. Stand so close, your arm is almost pressed on mine. Play with a lock of my hair. Don’t tell my eyes are beautiful. Tell me things I can put into my eyes to make them a little brighter.

Step 3: Take me places. Not places like a restaurant, or a busy mall, or a cheesy movie in a dark theater. Take me to a library, or a frozen yogurt store, or a rooftop, or a small lake in a small park, or a windy, old Oak tree. Don’t ask me where you want me to go. Take me on a whim of a random decision. I’ll love every place.

Step 4: Take my letters, and never read them in front of me. But when I see you the next time, smile like you’ll pretend you haven’t read it, but you have and you’ve loved it.

Step 5: Don’t tell me you love me. Make me know you love me, in a kiss where you brush my lips, and then grip the sides of my face like without this kiss you’ll fall into the floor beneath you. Steal my notebooks, and write poems, write letters, write jokes, draw faces in them, so when I open my them to do my homework, I can smile. Don’t sneak in my house at night. Call me and ask me to meet you so we can walk aimlessly at midnight.

Step 6: Meet me everyday with a smile more beautiful than my favorite poem, and hold my hand when it’s sweaty and you don’t need to.

Step 7: Then, start to fade. Stop writing little notes to me in lectures to make me smile when I feel like crying. Stop calling me to meet me places. Stop showing up in the mornings. Kiss me like I’m forcing you to.

Step 8: Sit in my favorite library, and read my favorite book, in my favorite chair. Glance up as I pass, and look at me briefly as you would a stranger. Then look back at your book.

Step 9: Meet me one day by chance at 3 in one of our spots. Carve my name in our Oak tree, and trace it gently. Then turn to me, graze my cheek with yours, and leave.

Step 10: Jar my heart in your room, and watch it bleed every day, and then begin to rot, never visit our spots again. Leave for the summer abroad, and return a stranger.