Confessions

When he showed up at my door thinking he was coming to help me, I already had everything planned. He was twenty and as naive as someone who doesn’t know what’s waiting for him.

When Bruno put the cards on the coffee table, I had no idea that game would end with the four of us sprawled across the living room rug.

When Camila turned off the movie and told me, “sometimes I watch gay porn when I’m alone,” I knew that line was going to split my life in two.

For three years I read every word he wrote without a like, without a comment, without daring to do anything. Then one night everything changed when his message appeared.

She walked into the classroom slowly, her face pale and a flash of pain on her face when she sat down that she couldn’t hide. It took me days to get the truth out of her.

Six years ago, I went into my older brother’s room one August night. I didn’t go to talk. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

When Sofía lowered herself into the chair and I saw her face twist in pain, I knew the flu was a lie and that what had happened was far worse than I imagined.

Four years in the same office without knowing who we were to each other. The day we found out, everything changed.

Every time I crossed my legs in class, his eyes went down on their own. It took me two Tuesdays and one Friday to get him to invite me to the private reading room.

Kwame parked the rig at noon and, before pulling out the next day, had marked three different bodies. Some sought him out; others simply gave in.

When they stopped us in the dark, all I could think about was getting away. I never imagined that hours later I’d be hoping it wouldn’t end.

Martín listened in silence while I told him what had happened with my mother’s husband. That night I didn’t sleep, thinking about doing it.

There was something in her eyes when she turned around that should have worried me. It wasn’t the anger of an irritated neighbor. It was a promise.

I had access to every screen in the place and never should have looked. But when I saw what they did with my photos, something in me lit up.

Romina walked into that party with a confidence few women have. The next day, when she took me to pick up her daughter, I realized the night before had only been the beginning.

He was my best friend’s boyfriend: hot, shy, religious. Too perfect for me not to do something about it.

I was fifteen when I caught them the first time. Now, at twenty-two, I can’t look at those memories the same way.

When he hugged me from behind and I felt his body against mine, we both knew it had a name no one dared to say aloud.

I hadn’t planned it. But when he walked in with the others and locked eyes with me, I already knew that night would end only one way.