Part II
Later, you try to forget the way his arms seemed to tighten around you in those few queasy seconds between your whispered goodbye and the program’s end. You take off the VR suit almost reluctantly—you wanted to stay with him, tell him you love him back…why didn’t you say that at least? How hard would it have been? Don’t be sorry. I love you, too.
But you want the words to be real, and there’s nothing real about him or his world, is there? So you keep the words inside, where they live in you, and you tell yourself he’s not still on his bed, lying there alone, wishing to hear those words in your voice. He’s not anywhere at all, he’s not feeling anything, he doesn’t love you, no matter how much you want him to.
You hate the sadistic part of your subconscious that wants to torture y
