m i l e n a

@milenabstract

aftg • trc • pjo/hoo/toa • mcga • tmi/tid/tda/tsc • bnha • fma • opm
Dear Milena,
I wish the world were ending tomorrow. Then I could take the next train, arrive at your doorstep in Vienna, and say: “Come with me, Milena. We are going to love each other without scruples or fear or restraint. Because the world is ending tomorrow.” Perhaps we don’t love unreasonably because we think we have time, or have to reckon with time. But what if we don’t have time? Or what if time, as we know it, is irrelevant? Ah, if only the world were ending tomorrow. We could help each other very much.

Franz Kafka, from Letters to Milena (Schocken Books, 1952)

Let’s talk about Neil for a sec kids.

THIS MAN IS SO GODDAMN BEAUTIFUL IT IS NOT OKAY.

So here is my chaotic bullet point analysis of Neil’s features (and a few splashes of andreil bc I couldn’t help myself) part 1/? bc I typed way too much

• Neil’s eyes? Fucking breathtaking.

• Like when he finally stops wearing his contacts around campus, people stop and stare. Just, openly.

• They’re a clear crystal blue, with thin wisps of indigo swimming in the sea of color. They draw you in like a magnet. Like the lure of the acrid smoke of a cigarette on the rooftop after a particularly rough day. They’re temptation and attraction, determination and flirtation.

• Andrew fucking loves Neil’s eyes. He doesn’t ever tell Neil that, of course, but Neil knows. Of course he knows. Years of practice means Andrew’s tells are exponentially easier for Neil to recognize, so he notices the little pauses, the quiet grit of Andrew’s teeth when he tries to look away, the dilation of his pupils. Neil notices it all.

• Andrew likes to stare. Openly.

• He tries to catalogue every color he sees in Neil’s eyes, memorize all the shifting kaleidoscopic patterns.

• It’s the one thing he hasn’t been able to truly commit to memory.

• Every time he looks at Neil, his eyes seem brighter. More full of life. And every time he blinks, the patterns change. It’s breathtaking.

• And so damn frustrating for Andrew.

• It takes Neil a long time to learn how to like his appearance.

• Some nights, Neil will just get lost in his reflection. He doesn’t mean to, but he catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror and is so caught off guard.

• Because at first, he looks like his father. Blue eyes, red hair.

• But then, when Neil looks closer, he realizes his eyes and hair... they don’t really look like Nathan’s. In fact, they look nothing like his.

• The Butcher’s eyes were an icy and murderous. The lives he’d taken, the blood he’d spilled, you could see it in his eyes.

• One look could have you frozen in fear.

• Neil thought he was the same. Broken and violent, just like his father.

• But when Neil stared back at his reflection, he saw something he never thought he’d see.

• Life.

• Years with the foxes and Andrew had softened his jagged edges, and now, when he looks in the mirror, they’re not his father’s eyes staring back.

• They’re warm and bright, and there are lines at the outer corners where his skin creases when he smiles.

• Neil’s been indulging in a lot more smiling lately.

• Some because of the Foxes, but mostly because of Andrew.

• Obviously.

• And that’s not to say the darkness isn’t still there, lurking beneath the surface, because that never fully goes away. But it doesn’t dim the light in Neil’s eyes as much as it used to.

• The bad days are becoming fewer and further in between, and the shadows are fading until they’re drowning in a sea of crystal blue.

okay whew sorry had to get that out of my system. I gotta talk about his hair next but I’ll do that in another post later bc I’m tired lol

I’ve been watching How To Get Away With Murder on Netflix and it made me think about Andrew pursuing the law centered career he was getting a degree for in Palmetto. Needless to say, he’d make a mean criminal defense lawyer