Love.

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and opens your heart and means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you. And this this one stupid person, no different than any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did someting dumb one day... like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness. So simple a phrase like... "maybe we should just be friends" turns into a glass splinter working its way into  your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination, not just in the mind... It's a soul hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.