tears fall

By Sophia Luo

A short story about tears.

tears rolling down our cheeks. 

it’s interesting how tears travel down our faces. each one takes a unique path, sliding down our cheekbones and making their way down our chin. sometimes they don’t reach our chin, wiped away quickly by the backs of hands or brushed away softly and tenderly by the fingers of others. tears from a scientific standpoint are droplets of water mixed with salt, fatty oils, and other proteins. each ball of water, transparent and made of H²O, rolls down our skin by the force of gravity. but in reality, they’re much more than drops of water. they’re fueled from happiness, despair, sadness, or anger. each tear has a cause or a purpose. tears have a backstory of their own.

Process

I thought of this idea when I was about to fall asleep, lying on my bed and looking at the ceiling. I wrote it with Amy, my mentor, and we made a few edits.