she dresses like no one should care but everybody will and she speaks like she’s in charge. she laughs and cries in private because she enjoys her own company more than anyone else’s and her favorite person to speak with lies in her own mirror. she bites her nails and picks her skin because what else will satisfy and calm the shaking deep in her bones? she pulls herself apart before anyone else can because she needs to get ahead. no one can tear her down if she’s already hit rock bottom. she makes sure to tell people she loves them and how, in her mind, they are perfect. and she does this because she means it but also because it is what she longs to hear from others. and she writes poems, admiring herself because who else will?