You aren’t the only one with secrets. Some secrets will be shared but I imagine most go unspoken, because the best kept secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves, those things we don’t know that we have hidden or forget we ever hid in one of those hiding places we don’t know we have.
She imagines the sound of a spine cracking when she crumples plastic bottles to recycle. He hates his father and not because he’s an alcoholic with a vicious temper but because he gets more attention from the woman he’s married to, his mother, than she gives to him. She doesn’t like his laugh. He doesn’t like his laugh. She won’t answer the telephone because she’s afraid of being mistaken for a child. He won’t answer because he feels sick thinking about all the prints other people have left on the receiver. She has recurring nightmares about her childhood teddy bear and she is reaching forty-five years old. She resents her baby because she has to give up drinking for her pregnancy. He resents her for being pregnant. He has never had a dream he can remember so he makes them up. She makes up anecdotes that bear little importance to make her life seem interesting. He is planning on killing himself before he is at the age his hair begins to fall out. He intentionally hold his jaw clenched to make it appear more chiselled. He read this in a magazine. She refuses to take her socks off in bed. She said she read in a magazine that *** is better if the socks remain on. She actually hates her feet, and his feet and all feet. She makes herself ***** more than seven times every day. She has done this for five consecutive years. She is clinically overweight. His hair is not naturally the colour people think it is. She has fantasies about her boyfriend’s sister. He is afraid to go outside or near sharp objects or get in a car because of his conviction that he will **** somebody for a reason he can't explain. He has no idea what he’s talking about. She has no idea what he’s talking about. He says he doesn’t believe in love. He believes it, and that he deserves it, but has never been shown it or felt it. He hasn’t given up but says that he has with a shrug. She loves the way he shrugs her off. She loves to feel unimportant. She says she doesn't believe in love and people assume she’s damaged after her divorce. She never loved him in the first place. She spends her time alone splitting open tangerines and picking apart the slices one by one and then eats the rind. He spends his time alone splitting open saturated teabags. He has been stealing from his mother for five years. She knows her son steals from her but doesn't want to confront him because she knows he has a drug problem and she hates him for it. He thinks his daughter is weak. She’s sad her daughter is ugly. She’s comfortable being ugly because it means she’ll never be touched by a man again. They tell people they were too busy to make that appointment. They are alone all the time.