"can u love me now"

He said it softly, like sin in prayer, "I think I might be a terrible person." The room held its breath. I braced for blood, for something sharp— but all he offered was his trembling heart, wrapped in shadows, torn at the seams. And I believed him, for just a breath, not because he looked like a monster— but because I knew that mirror too well. We all do. We all think we are the worst thing someone could ever choose to love. There is always a quiet moment before love, when we stand naked in our grief, offering the worst of ourselves and whispering, "Take me as I am—or end me." Peel me,he said, peel the skin from my soul like a blindfold— see me clearly, and still... love me.