Have you ever been in love?

Have you ever been in love? Hor­ri­ble isn’t it? It makes you so vul­nerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get insi­de you and mess you up. You build up all the­se defen­ses, you build up a who­le suit of armor, so that not­hing can hurt you, then one stu­pid per­son, no dif­fe­rent from any other stu­pid per­son, wan­ders into your stu­pid life… You give them a pie­ce of you. They did­n’t ask for it. They did some­thing 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 be just 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. Not­hing should be able to do that. Espe­ci­al­ly not love. I hate love.
(Neil Gai­man – The Sandman)