14 LEVI Funny thing, darkness. Some types thickened to the point that even the sun couldn’t pierce its gloom. Lil used to be my light, the calmness I could follow through any storm, but Zeke had ripped that joy from me, made it impossible for her to settle my insides and mood again. She’d invited me to her parents for dinner on Saturday night, bubbly as always, seeming to have forgotten how I’d blundered up our attempts to have s*x on Wednesday and how annoyed she’d been with me. Maybe she understood my dismal tone over the phone and had taken pity on me. It wouldn’t have been the first time her motherly instincts extended to my poor soul since my own mom seemed to forget more about her son than remember. I sat at her parent’s dining room table, unable to smile. Her usual laughter an