I Do Not

I do not help you because I love you.

I help you because you are human, because you need it- and relationships aren’t about repayment anyway. Stop feeling like you owe me, because if you give to me in replacement for what I have done for you, it is not love you give me, it is power over you, and that I do not want.

A relationship is about give and take, yes, but there is a balance.

Compromise.

Both sides on even ground.

A power imbalance causes cracks in the foundation you and I built together, working hard at a thing we are both invested in.

I do not love you because you are like me. In fact, I love you despite of it.

I love the differences between us, all the spaces where our bodies don’t align. I love arguing with you, even if it’s horrible, because it assures me that we have not just become the same person. Did we bond over shared interests? Sure.

I do not love you because of that.

I love you because you complete me in all the places I am not finished, and I have welded you back together more than once.

I do not spend all my time with you.

We both have other friends and that is wonderful, because I would never want to live in a world where only you and I exist. We would hate each other.

I love you. I love you.

But a large part of me hopes you already know that.