THE INTERLUDE. | jjk

PROLOGUE !

Love. L-O-V-E. Love.

A word I once believed to be so simple and short, had suddenly become so intricate and intimidating. It could mean a plethora of things, depending on the person saying it and the intention behind it. You can love a friend, a family member, a lover, a certain color, or even your most disliked ex. Love was an emotion that was surpassed all bounds and was shared through every species. It was something that could be so trivial as a small hug, or something so major as gentle intimacy with someone you shared a romantic connection with.

So, one could agree that love is an emotion, but what happens when it becomes deeper?

When that emotion controls you and consumes every waking moment of your life. That emotion has you wondering where they are, who they're with, and what they may be doing. When that emotion has your hormones bouncing off the walls at just a simple touch to the back, neck, or curvature of your waist. When that emotion has you craving them not only sexually, but mentally. You desire to be in their skin, using all of their senses, and being able to see and experience the world through their eyes.

Such a simple and short emotion can alter your brain chemistry. According to some statistics one could find online, love is a necessity for the average human, and being love-struck can cause a most vital part of the brain to accept more levels of dopamine. This allows someone to feel everything tenfold. Their entire body reacts highly and more positively to someone they love, as opposed to someone they do not. In contrast, someone without love begins to feel all the more "negative emotions", such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

Love, an emotion, can alter your mental well-being.

Love can also alter your health, and I'm not saying that in a way that has you up crying at night, screaming in agonizing pain for the aching to end...

I'm talking about takotosubo cardiomyopathy, also known as stress cardiomyopathy, but in other terms known as broken heart syndrome.

This condition happens when one is put under a stressful situation and takes on extreme emotions. Symptoms of this are frequent chest pains, shortness of breath, or even heart attacks. This condition strictly affects the heart, but it may hinder blood flow to the heart as well. Though the condition is labeled as temporary, many still tend to feel unwell well after the heart has healed.

So love, a simple emotion, could cause physical pain?

If I had known this before getting my gentle, fragile heart involved with certain people, I could've saved myself from what felt like BHS. The disappointment, tears, stress, and torment that I had been facing would not have even been a factor. My only problems would be my appearance, school, money, and my family, but now? Now my mind was being clouded with this stupid emotion. This emotion plagued me night and day and ruined my perception of everything surrounding me.

Love couldn't possibly just be an emotion, it was so much more.

Love was something immeasurable and hard to ever understand. Love was your connection, your beliefs, and the lengths you would go to. Love was the longing stares between two individuals who knew they couldn't have each other, and the harsh tension between the two when they were near. Love was the soft moans and undercover secrets shared between two people. Love was remembering something as small as someone's favorite color, to something as serious as their visions for the future. Love was seeing them mention something once, and having the urge to get them that thing in bulk. Love was making one person, on one planet feel like all the planets in every galaxy to exist.

Love was an action.

I genuinely thought I had it all figured out, I really did, but then I was shown what real love was.

Love wasn't just a simple and short word, nor was it just an emotion.

It was everything separating the moon and the stars.