Below are three pieces of my writing I've chosen to share with the world. The first is about self-destruction; the second, a case of an apple falling not too far from the tree; and finally, the third is about my phone (named Brutus) and its Lifeproof case. Enjoy.

She liked sharp objects.

“There was a time,” she’d say, “where beauty in my life was nothing but flames. A bright light, a glimmer of hope. But if I stared at it too long, I’d go blind. And who wants to go blind?”

So she found beauty in remarkable things. She made paintings out of heartbreak, danced wonderfully after a tornado, gave her all to strangers in passing. Everything she did was like a wave forming an ocean.

“But what did that do?” she asked. “It brought me no closer to myself. I noticed the beauty was overlooked: I was a sailor lost at sea with no boat, no lifejacket, no air.”

So she made herself an ocean far from beauty. The waves were nothing more than the sharp edges of a knife; the water, razors.

“This ocean was a special thing - a sign of afflicted beauty. A quick dip in the ocean and you never resurfaced. I had terrifying dreams of drowning in my ocean just to disappear, and that was beautiful.”

There was a sparkle in her eyes, but she was drowning.

Deeper and deeper she went.

Into her beautiful ocean.

Deeper and deeper she went.

And then she was gone.

All that was left was a whisper. Or maybe it was a scream.

“Maybe the beauty in sharp objects is when you lose yourself. And who doesn’t want to lose themselves?”

"Like Father, Like Son."

The words vibrate in my ears.

Could they be rendered true?

Like father like son.

Is that why I find it hard to love anyone back?

Like father like son.

Is that why I constantly feel like I don’t exist?

The words that vibrated in my ears,

I made sure they were rendered true.

For two years, you loved me.

I lost all my sleep trying to love you back.

Blue eyes, empty veins. A body without a soul.

Like father like son.

The fortune unfolds, the fortune unfolds!

Et tu, Brute?

You can't break me, you claim.

I was stupid to think the same.

I broke you,

Like you broke me.

Broken hearts like broken phones;

Put a smile on your face,

Conceal it with a case.

Broken pieces like broken bones.

All the money invested,

All the time atested,

Yet here I stand:

Lonely, scared.

80 dollars was not enough,

My case was a bust.

I should not have sat on you;

For when I ruined you,

I ruined me, too.

You were

Waterproof,

Shatterproof,

But not Lifeproof.