USER: Victor glanced out across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concrete under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side. "So tired of all this," he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough. Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles. "Yo, Vic, you've been benching, eh?" one male voice called out to him from across the field. "She ain't gonna call you back, but I will!" another jibed in good humour. "As if I'd have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about--" Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark bangs, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a jolt of wonderment as he smiled back. "Yeah, that's what we don't have time for , Vic " he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a p...

USER: Is the memory well executed

USER: Is this more intermediate or advanced: Victor glanced out across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concrete under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side. "So tired of all this," he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough. Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles. "Yo, Vic, you've been benching, eh?" one male voice called out to him from across the field. "She ain't gonna call you back, but I will!" another jibed in good humour. "As if I'd have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about--" Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark bangs, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a jolt of wonderment as he smiled back. "Yeah, that's what we don't have time for , Vic " he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a polarising eclipse as he ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head. Her pristine white teeth, full lips and the echoes of her laughter interweaved through the blaring whistle of his coach. His legs screamed with lactic acid from running drills , and he found relief in the cooling breeze that brushed against his perspiration. In the quiet reprieve of the emptying arena, his thoughts flashed to his profoundly emptier shoe-box apartment. His hand, running along a faded imprint across his back, sent him chills . It was when his time was idle , his fingers would explore all the old wounds and he stopped himself; steeling his grip on his forearm. The impending evening promised him a decent meal , a sound night of sleep and insurmountable volumes of pay-per-view. Yet he felt exhausted as his mind flirted with the prospect of abandon. A night of rampant corruption, of revelry, and flames of his inexhaustible youth. That's when he felt a presence at his shoulder , and he lift his gaze. "Lara? How long have you been standing there?" he asked, broken from his distraction. "Not long, you look stressed out, is everything okay?" Her soft lilt fell on his ears , rendering him speechless . "Oh yeah. Just , life of a quarterback, y'know how hard it is being in demand right?" "Cheerleading coach and head cheerleader in an institution like this, yeah I think I might have a slight idea." Her laugh washed over him as his mind was soothed by its smoothness. "I have to get back out there , but I just wanted to say hey." Leaning forward, she pressed an open palm against his shoulder, leaving a slip of paper fluttering into his lap as she walked away. "Hey , to you too" he called out , in disorientation, fishing the scrap of paper from his lap. His fingers toyed with edge of the paper, and he slipped it into his pocket with resignation There was no answer as she disappeared into the haze of twilight that shimmered across the field . "What have we got ourselves into , huh?" . He grinned ruefully at the setting sun , with her number under his fingers as they returned to the crumpled paper and traced the digits with temptation . He sighed into the unfolding night as he rose from the bleachers and made his way toward the parking lot. After a long few hours spent in traffic , Victor curtailed the escalating effect of gridlock on his nerves by fiddling with the radio. Song after song, he surfed the channels , sifting through droning ballads and unrelated classics that remanded him vaguely of childhood. Unresolved, he switched the station off entirely, strumming a fabricated tune on his jeans , and humming in agitation. "C'mon" he willed the stagnant vehicles with an offset jaw, scratching at his shoulder blade and realigning his neck . As the faint honking of horns replaced the old classics that had been playing , he found himself trapped. His mind was transported to an afternoon from years back, one he never recalled often , and its vivid presence made him flinch. The sun had been a waning backdrop as he'd stood crying on a green lawn, plastic spade in hand. A sandpit laid under his bare feet, and a familiar voice thundered through him, grinding him to a halt . Tears streamed down his face , each one a grave mistake. "You have until the count of three to stop crying-" Looming above him, his fate was closing in as the authorising voice descended upon him. " One...I'm not playing around , Victor ...Two-" . Suddenly the blare of a horn sent sobering reality coursing through him as his eyes flew open and he slammed the accelerator, his memory entrenching itself in the dark corners of his subconscious as he drove in silence.The shadows of the highway painted themselves across his features in a haunting reflection of his solitude. Eventually he swung the leather wheel into its neutral position, unjamming the keys from the ignition . His long journey was over , but only just beginning as he encountered the stairs to his second floor apartment, , lethargy mocking him every step he endured. He fell onto his couch it misery, not paying the idiot box one iota of attention. Flashes of his friends, his studies , and lukewarm food, passed through his thoughts. And the occasional splice of Lara's embodiment of perfection made his void stomach flip. He then fell in an encompassing sleep, his entire psyche drowned in the salvation of dreamless peace . Sun came streaming into the claustrophobic living room, stirring Victor from his unconscious haven. His eyes , opening and closing again as he groaned, radiated the early morning and forced him awake. His hands drifted absent minded , to the intricate patterns just above the small of his back. His clenching teeth ground tighter and he fingered the imprint with disdain. Already unsure of how it had been inflicted , it was all a part of the blueprint that he covered day in , day out. Like a roadmap only he had the itinerary to. But as he folded deep creases into the map and buried it into his mind , it was safe in the shallows of his mind for another day . Retrieving the slip of paper from his jeans , her number jarred at his mind . He punched the string of digits into his phone , and glared at the screen, before locking it and prying himself off the couch . After showering, and shovelling a dry , milk-laced bowl of cereal down into his wrenching stomach, he stopped at his door. "Well , here goes nothin'" he muttered as he thumbed his phone's screen and his index finger touched upon "Lara" As her voice answered , it numbed the frayed edges of his mind for a second ." Hey, it's Victor. I found something in a rather compromising place yesterday, and I had to chase it up ... Yeah your number found its way to my lap. Oh it that so , huh? Sure . I think I can do that. How about that new fusion bar that just opened on the strip? Great, I'll swing by around eight. Looking forward to it." when he was sure the call was disconnected, he sighed cooly. "No idea what we're in for here " . He shrugged and hit the pavement for his morning jog, shaking the past night's worries from his physique as he belted the asphalt with momentum. Then it started as usual, Logan sprinted by, yelling in jest. "Victor , see you on the field later, hot stuff!" "Will do, you're ass had better be in shape , not going' easy on ya, buddy " Victor , beaming in relief at the normalcy , stunted his pace as she walked across her front yard, stopping at the bottle green - fence to join her friends , and his pulse elevated with her passing. He then found his gait slowing as his peripheral vision drank in Lara's figure, her curves contrasted against the angular wood panels. His tongue ran over his teeth as he contemplated approaching , his eyes instead gleaming in the fleeting sunlight that hit them. Shielding his gaze from the glare he maintained his jog ,and his mind carried to thoughts of the oncoming evening. Victor , twirling his fork through a saturated noodle, suppressed his urge to tackle the mouthful, his eyes resting on her lips . It was distracting enough , as she chewed with a delicacy and yet a hunger he admired somehow. "I guess things just got tough when I found myself living out of Ethan's car because I had nowhere else to go -" . Lara swallowed and swiped her napkin across her glossed lips, nodding in empathy. "Yeah, I can't imagine what you went through , Victor , to flee home and get an apartment off campus, I imagine it's difficult. But it's one thing I admire about you." "Yeah? Really... I ...Guess I'd never thought of it that way. I just did what I had to do to stay afloat. " Victor nudged the sesame sauce pooling around the pieces of chicken on his plate, her compliment harder to digest than his food. "Sure Victor , you've held yourself together better than anyone would . We all know about the homecoming game What happened to Ethan and what you did -" "Yeah" Victor met Lara's gaze , holding her green eyes in his view , almost mesmerising , inviting him to slip into their comforting focus. "When Ethan stopped breathing for three solid, those were the longest minutes of my life, it terrified me. For a long time I just wanted to escape the roar of the crowd. I just longed for some peace and quiet I suppose. I can't hear my own thoughts sometimes." Lara held his gaze , her eyes filled with empathy . "It's ok to need quiet , Victor . It's human . It's what makes you so much more than the star quarterback. You're a genuine type of guy, and I respect that, sure everyone looks up to you , but from where I sit, there's so much more , and I want to be the one lucky enough to share it. " Her words made his breath come a little faster as he finally found interest in his food , out of better avenue for escape , he dug in. "Well, from where I sit , I just feel lucky to be seen by someone so beautiful , and you know I don't talk for my health." Victor held her gaze with intense meaning, the light of the bar playing on his irises . She laughed, reaching out to hold his elbow for a brief moment, and he glanced at her hand , his breath slowing. " How about we get some air? A walk around campus ? " he offered , returning his gaze to her softened smile. As they crossed the quad , peppered with students passing here and there , he savoured the crisp air in his lungs. Her constant stream of harmonious chatter conveyed her nervousness, again tugging at his pulse. It was a pleasant sound against his own trepidation, and he wasn't about to interrupt her, it was too arresting for him to do so. Instead, his hands slid casually into his jeans as her lilt charmed the edges of his racing thoughts, slowing them into a calm pause. Before he noticed , they had circled the campus, and were already at her dorm , where he'd met with her earlier. It was instinctive as he leaned in and his mouth found her bottom lip, savouring its fullness as he pulled away again, the moment fleeting but more than enough. "Thanks for tonight" he whispered , his voice rough against her ear as she tucked away a strand of dark hair and stared into his gaze. "I'll see you after practice, tomorrow, quarterback" she whispered back as he left her to wander past her fence , and disappear through her door

USER: IsSweat crawled in slivering, unwholesome trails of vessel-breaking tears, bathing his eyelids in terror. A voice screamed at his unstable mind, questioning what his tremors had led him to forget. What his anxiety had buried from his access. His bleaching memory hazed in and out. With a strangled cry, he confessed, "I don't know what I did--I'm sorry!" His disemboweling bladder dropped, his scorching throat filled with a certain moisture. He wiped his nostrils against the back of his hand, a thick post-nasal plea escaping him. "Why do you make me do this, James? I don't want to do this more intermediate or advanced: Victor glancedto you, but you won't listen, a voice loomed from above. "I didn't want to turn four! I'm sorry!" The plastic of a deflated balloon burst under the heavy thud of a boot. A jolt of horrified regret traveled down his spine. "I will never understand what it may take to discipline you, boy, but you don't deserve any of it--the toys, the food, the money I wasted..." James, reeling from his wound-up position on the floor, cried even harder. The lurid warmth of urine seeping around the tongues of his shoes, drowning the perforated leather with pale lemon stains. Tears unstopping; each one unseen under the shadow that cast itself across his face. As James opened his eyes, a melancholic gleam passed through them. He gazed down at her, beyond even what he could call perfect. "You're safe now , gorgeous. Can't believe you're four hours old ." Smiling, her tiny hazel eyes locked onto his matching brown and amber irises. He strangled the memory with a genuine grin of pride and admiration. The shining pain in his own exhausted eyes, from the extensive hours his calloused hand had spent being ripped apart, was now nothing, weightless, and forgotten. "Your mom , well...". Not that he had tangible words to say as he held her, shaking with disbelief, anger, and a profound sense of loss. "Here we are , just the two of us , but we'll be ok, I promise. ". James , sighing in heartbroken defeat, held his daughter closer as she stirred. " I suppose some things never change. But I'm here , not going anywhere. " He lamented in the serenity , unsure how he stood with such a fragile life in his hands just hours after witnessing her entrance into the world with a now stranger at his side. Gazing in wonderment at her father, a pivotal axis to her entire world, her breathing fell against his palm. "Welcome to my world , kiddo, you're the only thing I have that counts , sweetheart. " His cracking voice questioned the silence , awaiting an answer he'd never receive . "Why must you look just like her? I suppose you look like me too, now that not so good , huh?" He smiled as his stare ambled out into the skyline, lost in the faint buildings and smog , willing back his agony. "How could she just-" he retracted , the rhetorical hopelessness evoking a sting of grief that would be his new companion in the night. But Lily, as she drifted to sleep, her fresh new pupils full of glassy hope , offered him solace. Even if that solace tore incremental fragments of his heart through his chest, it was solace all the same. Setting up makeshift camp in the hall, under the stringent ward lights, he chased sleep . With red-rimmed , insomnia bathed eyes, he bargained with his mind for reprieve. Unlike a continuum, a vacuum of darkness swallowed his awareness for a bleak moment, and then his head jolted forward, wide awake again. The grit behind his nails , and the shadows under his sunken eyes , pooled deeper as the hours passed. He heard Lily stir , and he pictured the woman who discharged herself from the hospital, not leaving a reason in her wake. He could still taste her, feel her in his clothes, it sickened his heart as it pulsated with betrayal. "Right here Lily, I've got you. " his hoarse voice found her, and her fussing stopped in an instant. His softening voice whispers intangible phrases , he half sang, his deep-throated hum off balance from his persistent fatigue . A lullaby of his own , off key , intermingling with her cries. His eyes floated shut , and images of cowering under creaking stairs, the weight above him luring closer , his young screams pleading for mercy. "I didn't mean to , Dad-" everything grew colder, then a fierce heat drove through him , making him flinch at the recollection. A boot sailed past his head. Then a knife. James opened his eyes , his pulse already thundering out of sync with his infant daughter, whose fluttering heartbeat still seemed calmer. " I'm sorry you'll be in here a while longer. Can't take you home , yet. But you're gonna love your own crib." His fingers traced her delicate features , his thumb resting on her nose as she reached up and hooked his index finger, like a lifeline against a grim backdrop. "You can sleep, there'll be plenty of time to look at this mug in the morning." He mumbled as her hand fell away, splaying across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concreteher chest as she slipped away into a slumber. Returning to his haphazard scattering of belongings, he uncapped an energy drink , draining and crushing the aluminium under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side. "So tired of all this," he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough. Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles. "Yo, Vic, you've been benching, eh?" one male voice called out to him from across the field. "She ain't gonna call you back, but I will!" another jibed in good humour. "As if I'd have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about--" Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark bangs, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a jolt of wonderment as he smiled back. "Yeah, that's what we don't have time for , Vic " he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a polarising eclipse as he ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head. Her pristine white teeth, full lips and the echoes of her laughter interweaved through the blaring whistle of his coach. His legs screamed with lactic acid from running drills , and he found relief in the cooling breeze that brushed against his perspiration. In the quiet reprieve of the emptying arena, his thoughts flashed to his profoundly emptier shoe-box apartment. His hand, running along a faded imprint across his back, sent him chills .his fingers, the distorted metal absorbing his anguish and dismay. It was when his time was idle ,the inevitability encroaching on his raw nerves as his fingers would explore all the old wounds and he stopped himself; steeling his gripunlocked his phone, and scrolled for her number. "Elara? I don't know. You discharged yourself , no I don't care where the hell you are -she can't survive on his forearm. The impending evening promised him a decent meal , a sound night of sleep and insurmountable volumes of pay-per-view. Yet he felt exhausted as his mind flirted with the prospect of abandon. A night of rampant corruption, of revelry, and flames of his inexhaustible youth. That's when he felt a presence at his shoulder , and he lift his gaze. "Lara? How long have you been standing there?" he asked, broken from his distraction. "Not long, you look stressed out, is everything okay?" Her soft lilt fell on his ears , rendering him speechlessair . "Oh yeah. Just , life of a quarterback, y'know how hard it is being in demand right?" "Cheerleading coach and head cheerleader in an institution like this, yeah I think I might have a slight idea." Her laugh washed over him as his mind was soothed by its smoothness. "I have to get back out there ,No, but Iplease just wanted to say hey." Leaning forward, she pressed an open palm against his shoulder, leaving a slip of paper fluttering into his lap as she walked away. "Hey , to you too" he called out , in disorientation, fishing the scrap of paper from his lap. His fingers toyed with edge of the paper, and he slipped it into his pocket with resignation There was no answer as she disappeared into the haze of twilight that shimmered across the field . "What have we got ourselves into , huh?" . He grinned ruefully at the setting sun , with her number under his fingers as they returned to the crumpled paper and traced the digits with temptation . He sighed into the unfolding night as he rose from the bleachers and made his way toward the parking lot. After a long few hours spent in traffic , Victor curtailed the escalating effect of gridlock on his nerves by fiddling with the radio. Song after song, he surfed the channels , sifting through droning ballads and unrelated classics that remanded him vaguely of childhood. Unresolved, he switched the station off entirely, strumming a fabricated tune on his jeans , and humming in agitation. "C'mon" he willed the stagnant vehicles with an offset jaw, scratching at his shoulder blade and realigning his neck . As the faint honking of horns replaced the old classics that had been playing , he found himself trapped. His mind was transported to an afternoon from years back, one he never recalled often , and its vivid presence made him flinch. The sun had been a waning backdrop as he'd stood crying on a green lawn, plastic spade in hand. A sandpit laid under his bare feet, and a familiar voice thundered through him, grinding him to a halt . Tears streamed down his face , each one a grave mistake. "You have until the count of three to stop crying-" Looming above him, his fate was closing in as the authorising voice descended upon him. " One...I'm not playing around , Victor ...Two-" . Suddenly the blare of a horn sent sobering reality coursing through him as his eyes flew open and he slammed the accelerator, his memory entrenching itself in the dark corners of his subconscious as he drove in silence.The shadows of the highway painted themselves across his features in a haunting reflection of his solitude. Eventually he swung the leather wheel into its neutral position, unjamming the keys from the ignition . His long journey was over , but only just beginning as he encountered the stairs to his second floor apartment, , lethargy mocking him every step he endured. He fell onto his couch it misery, not paying the idiot box one iota of attention. Flashes of his friends, his studies , and lukewarm food, passed through his thoughts. And the occasional splice of Lara's embodiment of perfection made his void stomach flip. He then fell in an encompassing sleep, his entire psyche drowned in the salvation of dreamless peace . Sun came streaming into the claustrophobic living room, stirring Victor from his unconscious haven. His eyes , opening and closing again as he groaned, radiated the early morning and forced him awake. His hands drifted absent minded , to the intricate patterns just above the small of his back. His clenching teeth ground tighter and he fingered the imprint with disdain. Already unsure of how it had been inflicted , it was all a part of the blueprint that he covered day in , day out. Like a roadmap only he had the itinerary to. But as he folded deep creases into the map and buried it into his mind , it was safe in the shallows of his mind for another day . Retrieving the slip of paper from his jeans , her number jarred at his mind . He punched the string of digits into his phone , and glared at the screen, before locking it and prying himself off the couch . After showering, and shovelling a dry , milk-laced bowl of cereal down into his wrenching stomach, he stopped at his door. "Well , here goes nothin'" he muttered as he thumbed his phone's screen and his index finger touched upon "Lara" As her voice answered , it numbed the frayed edges of his mind for a second ." Hey, it's Victor. I found something in a rather compromising place yesterday, and I had to chase it up ... Yeah your number found its way to my lap. Oh it that so , huh? Sure . I thinktell me what I can do that. Howto fix -No, of course I love you, I'm alone in a hospital with our , well , my daughter .-" The phone went dead in his ear and he left it backflip into his lap with resignation. Unshaven, his rough jaw razed against his knuckles, the mild rays of morning bleeding into the room, embracing her in a blanket of warmth, the humidicrib encasing his daughter with a plastic film of isolation. "Morning , gorgeous " he muttered in the silence. "You're a fighter , huh? Don't worry , your Daddy is proud as hell of you kid -". On another whim of utter frustration he had to fight the torrent of unfiltered torment that tore through his clenched teeth. "Pick up, please ...Elara? Oh God , just tell me why-No I haven't slept , she's in a critical condition -don't worry about that new fusion bar that just openedit. I know it's heartbreaking-Oh I'm not going through hell right now ? No please I'm sorry-" . Again, the line died out in the shell of his ear, wrenching a knife through the lining of his stomach. Exhaustion gnawed ferociously on the strip? Great, I'll swing by around eight. Looking forward to it." when hehis brain, and he relented to sleep as it finally came , like a tower of building blocks , smashing him . "Evening princess, Daddy got so tired he passed out clean. You're such a good sleeper . Nurses probably took care of you huh? You're always gonna be in good hands here. " as he picked her up, her entire body fitting onto his forearm , he glanced at the clock. "God I was sure the call was disconnected, he sighed cooly. "No idea what we're in for here " . He shrugged and hit the pavement for his morning jog, shaking the past night's worries from his physique as he belted the asphalt with momentum. Then it started as usual, Logan sprinted by, yelling in jest. "Victor , see you on the field later, hot stuff!" "Will do, you're ass had better be in shape , not going' easy on ya, buddy " Victor , beaming in relief at the normalcy , stunted his pace as she walked across her front yard, stopping at the bottle green - fence to join her friends , and his pulse elevated with her passing. He then found his gait slowing as his peripheral vision drank in Lara's figure, her curves contrasted against the angular wood panels. His tongue ran over his teeth as he contemplated approaching , his eyes instead gleaming in the fleeting sunlight that hit them. Shielding his gaze from the glare he maintained his jog ,and his mind carried to thoughts of the oncoming evening. Victor , twirling his fork through a saturated noodle, suppressed his urge to tackle the mouthful, his eyes resting on her lips .out a while...wasn't I ?" It was distracting enough ,a peaceful calm that melted through his wired nerves, as he stood , stupefied , still holding Lily as she chewed with a delicacy and yet a hunger he admired somehow. "I guess things just got tough when I found myself living out of Ethan's car because Islept. He had nowhere else to go -" . Lara swallowed and swiped her napkin across her glossed lips, nodding in empathy. "Yeah, I can't imagine whatlost all desire to move , it seemed to inconvenient to lay her down. And he wasn't truly at peace anywhere else. "Don't you went through , Victor , to flee home and get an apartment off campus, I imagine it's difficult. But it's one thing I admiredare wake up yet" he whispered into the cool night. Her breathing, rising and falling in a soothing rhythm against his skin, gave him a sense of something palpable ."I miss her , yknow, but I worry about you." "Yeah? Really... I ...Guess I'd never thought of it that way. I just did what I had to do to stay afloat. " Victor nudged the sesame sauce pooling around the pieces of chicken on his plate, her compliment harder to digest than his food. "Sure Victor , you've held yourself together better than anyone would . We all know about the homecoming game What happened to Ethan and what you did -" "Yeah" Victor met Lara's gaze , holding her green eyes in his view , almost mesmerising , inviting him to slip into their comforting focus. "When Ethan stopped breathing for three solid, those were the longest minutes of my life, it terrified me. For a long time I just wanted to escape the roar of the crowd. I just longed for some peace and quiet I suppose. I can't hear my own thoughts sometimes." Lara held his gaze , her eyes filled with empathy . "It's ok to need quiet , Victor . It's human . It's what makes you so much more than the star quarterback. You're a genuine type of guy, and I respect that, sure everyone looks up to you , but from where I sit, there's so much more , and I want to be the one lucky enough to share it. " Her words made his breath come a little faster as he finally found interest in his food , out of better avenue for escape , he dug in. "Well, from where I sit , I just feel lucky to be seen by someone so beautiful , and you know I don't talk for my health." Victor held her gaze with intense meaning, the light of the bar playing on his irises . She laughed, reaching out to hold his elbow for a brief moment, and he glanced at her hand , his breath slowing. " How about we get some air? A walk around campus ? " he offered , returning his gaze to her softened smile. As they crossed the quad , peppered with students passing here and there , he savoured the crisp air in his lungs. Her constant stream of harmonious chatter conveyed her nervousness, again tugging at his pulse. It was a pleasant sound against his own trepidation, and he wasn't about to interrupt her, it was too arresting for him to do so. Instead, his hands slid casually into his jeans as her lilt charmed the edges of his racing thoughts, slowing them into a calm pause. Before he noticed , they had circled the campus, and were already at her dorm , where he'd met with her earlier. It was instinctive as he leaned in and his mouth found her bottom lip, savouring its fullness as he pulled away again, the moment fleeting but more than enough. "Thanks for tonight" he whispered , his voice rough against her ear as she tucked away a strand of dark hair and stared into his gaze. "I'll see you after practice, tomorrow, quarterback" she whispered back as he left her to wander past her fence , and disappear through her doorher too."

USER: Sweat crawled in slivering, unwholesome trails of vessel-breaking tears, bathing his eyelids in terror.Is this paced well? Victor glanced out across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concrete under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side. "So tired of all this," he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough. Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles. "Yo, Vic, you've been benching, eh?" one male voice called out to him from across the field. "She ain't gonna call you back, but I will!" another jibed in good humour. "As if I'd have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about--" Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark hair, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a rush of intoxication as he smiled back, enamoured . "Yeah, that's what we don't have time for , Vic " he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a polarising eclipse as he ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head. Her pristine white teeth, full lips and the echoes of her laughter interweaved through the blaring whistle of his coach. His legs screamed with lactic acid from running drills , and he found relief in the cooling breeze that brushed against his perspiration. In the quiet reprieve of the emptying arena, his thoughts flashed to his profoundly emptier shoe-box apartment. His hand, running along a faded imprint across his back, sent him chills . It was when his time was idle , his fingers would explore all the old wounds and he stopped himself; steeling his grip on his forearm. The impending evening promised him a decent meal , a sound night of sleep and insurmountable volumes of pay-per-view. Yet he felt exhausted as his mind flirted with the prospect of abandon. A night of rampant corruption, of revelry, and flames of his inexhaustible youth. That's when he felt a presence at his shoulder , and he lift his gaze. "Lara? How long have you been standing there?" he asked, broken from his distraction. "Not long, you look stressed out, is everything okay?" Her soft lilt fell on his ears , rendering him speechless . "Oh yeah. Just , life of a quarterback, y'know how hard it is being in demand right?" "Cheerleading coach and head cheerleader in an institution like this, yeah I think I might have a slight idea." Her laugh washed over him as his mind was soothed by its smoothness. "I have to get back out there , but I just wanted to say hey." Leaning forward, she pressed an open palm against his shoulder, leaving a slip of paper fluttering into his lap as she walked away. "Hey , to you too" he called out , in disorientation, fishing the scrap of paper from his lap. His fingers toyed with edge of the paper, and he slipped it into his pocket with resignation There was no answer as she disappeared into the haze of twilight that shimmered across the field . "What have we got ourselves into , huh?" . He grinned ruefully at the setting sun , with her number under his fingers as they returned to the crumpled paper and traced the digits with temptation . He sighed into the unfolding night as he rose from the bleachers and made his way toward the parking lot. After a long few hours spent in traffic , Victor curtailed the escalating effect of gridlock on his nerves by fiddling with the radio. Song after song, he surfed the channels , sifting through droning ballads and unrelated classics that remanded him vaguely of childhood. Unresolved, he switched the station off entirely, strumming a fabricated tune on his jeans , and humming in agitation. "C'mon" he willed the stagnant vehicles with an offset jaw, scratching at his shoulder blade and realigning his neck . As the faint honking of horns replaced the old classics that had been playing , he found himself trapped. His mind was transported to an afternoon from years back, one he never recalled often , and its vivid presence made him flinch. The sun had been a waning backdrop as he'd stood crying on a green lawn, plastic spade in hand. A sandpit laid under his bare feet, and a familiar voice screamedthundered through him, grinding him to a halt . Tears streamed down his face , each one a grave mistake. "You have until the count of three to stop crying-" Looming above him, his fate was closing in as the authorising voice descended upon him. " One...I'm not playing around , Victor ...Two-" . Suddenly the blare of a horn sent sobering reality coursing through him as his eyes flew open and he slammed the accelerator, his memory entrenching itself in the dark corners of his subconscious as he drove in silence.The shadows of the highway painted themselves across his features in a haunting reflection of his solitude. Eventually he swung the leather wheel into its neutral position, unjamming the keys from the ignition . His long journey was over , but only just beginning as he encountered the stairs to his second floor apartment, , lethargy mocking him every step he endured. He fell onto his couch it misery, not paying the idiot box one iota of attention. Flashes of his friends, his studies , and lukewarm food, passed through his thoughts. And the occasional splice of Lara's embodiment of perfection made his void stomach flip. He then fell in an encompassing sleep, his entire psyche drowned in the salvation of dreamless peace . Sun came streaming into the claustrophobic living room, stirring Victor from his unconscious haven. His eyes , opening and closing again as he groaned, radiated the early morning and forced him awake. His hands drifted absent minded , to the intricate patterns just above the small of his back. His clenching teeth ground tighter and he fingered the imprint with disdain. Already unsure of how it had been inflicted , it was all a part of the blueprint that he covered day in , day out. Like a roadmap only he had the itinerary to. But as he folded deep creases into the map and buried it into his mind , it was safe in the shallows of his mind for another day . Retrieving the slip of paper from his jeans , her number jarred at his unstable mind, questioningmind . He punched the string of digits into his phone , and glared at the screen, before locking it and prying himself off the couch . After showering, and shovelling a dry , milk-laced bowl of cereal down into his wrenching stomach, he stopped at his door. "Well , here goes nothin'" he muttered as he thumbed his phone's screen and his index finger touched upon "Lara" As her voice answered , it numbed the frayed edges of his mind for a second ." Hey, it's Victor. I found something in a rather compromising place yesterday, and I had to chase it up ... Yeah your number found its way to my lap. Oh it that so , huh? Sure . I think I can do that. How about that new fusion bar that just opened on the strip? Great, I'll swing by around eight. Looking forward to it." when he was sure the call was disconnected, he sighed cooly. "No idea what his tremorswe're in for here " . He shrugged and hit the pavement for his morning jog, shaking the past night's worries from his physique as he belted the asphalt with momentum. Then it started as usual, Logan sprinted by, yelling in jest. "Victor , see you on the field later, hot stuff!" "Will do, you're ass had ledbetter be in shape , not going' easy on ya, buddy " Victor , beaming in relief at the normalcy , stunted his pace as she walked across her front yard, stopping at the bottle green - fence to join her friends , and his pulse elevated with her passing. He then found his gait slowing as his peripheral vision drank in Lara's figure, her curves contrasted against the angular wood panels. His tongue ran over his teeth as he contemplated approaching , his eyes instead gleaming in the fleeting sunlight that hit them. Shielding his gaze from the glare he maintained his jog ,and his mind carried to thoughts of the oncoming evening. Victor , twirling his fork through a saturated noodle, suppressed his urge to tackle the mouthful, his eyes resting on her lips . It was distracting enough , as she chewed with a delicacy and yet a hunger he admired somehow. "I guess things just got tough when I found myself living out of Ethan's car because I had nowhere else to go -" . Lara swallowed and swiped her napkin across her glossed lips, nodding in empathy. "Yeah, I can't imagine what you went through , Victor , to flee home and get an apartment off campus, I imagine it's difficult. But it's one thing I admire about you." "Yeah? Really... I ...Guess I'd never thought of it that way. I just did what I had to do to stay afloat. " Victor nudged the sesame sauce pooling around the pieces of chicken on his plate, her compliment harder to digest than his food. "Sure Victor , you've held yourself together better than anyone would . We all know about the homecoming game What happened to Ethan and what you did -" "Yeah" Victor met Lara's gaze , holding her green eyes in his view , almost mesmerising , inviting him to forget. What his anxiety had buried from his access. His bleaching memory hazed in and out. With a strangled cry, he confessed, "I don't know what I did--I'm sorry!" His disemboweling bladder dropped, his scorching throatslip into their comforting focus. "When Ethan stopped breathing for three solid, those were the longest minutes of my life, it terrified me. For a long time I just wanted to escape the roar of the crowd. I just longed for some peace and quiet I suppose. I can't hear my own thoughts sometimes." Lara held his gaze , her eyes filled with a certain moisture. He wiped his nostrilsempathy . "It's ok to need quiet , Victor . It's human . It's what makes you so much more than the star quarterback. You're a genuine type of guy, and I respect that, sure everyone looks up to you , but from where I sit, there's so much more , and I want to be the one lucky enough to share it. " Her words made his breath come a little faster as he finally found interest in his food , out of better avenue for escape , he dug in. "Well, from where I sit , I just feel lucky to be seen by someone so beautiful , and you know I don't talk for my health." Victor held her gaze with intense meaning, the light of the bar playing on his irises . She laughed, reaching out to hold his elbow for a brief moment, and he glanced at her hand , his breath slowing. " How about we get some air? A walk around campus ? " he offered , returning his gaze to her softened smile. As they crossed the quad , peppered with students passing here and there , he savoured the crisp air in his lungs. Her constant stream of harmonious chatter conveyed her nervousness, again tugging at his pulse. It was a pleasant sound against the back of his hand, a thick post-nasal plea escaping him. "Why do you make me do this, James? I don't want to do this to you, but you won't listen, a voice loomed from above. "I didn't want to turn four! I'm sorry!" The plastic of a deflated balloon burst under the heavy thud of a boot. A jolt of horrified regret traveled down his spine. "I will never understand what it may take to discipline you, boy, but you don't deserve any of it--the toys, the food, the money I wasted..." James, reeling from his wound-up position on the floor, cried even harder. The lurid warmth of urine seeping around the tongues of his shoes, drowning the perforated leather with pale lemon stains. Tears unstopping; each one unseen under the shadow that cast itself across his face. As James opened his eyes, a melancholic gleam passed through them. He gazed down athis own trepidation, and he wasn't about to interrupt her, beyond even what he could call perfect. "You're safe now , gorgeous. Can't believe you're four hours old ." Smiling, her tiny hazel eyes locked onto his matching brown and amber irises. He strangled the memory with a genuine grin of pride and admiration. The shining pain in his own exhausted eyes, from the extensive hours his calloused hand had spent being ripped apart, was now nothing, weightless, and forgotten. "Your mom , well...". Not that he had tangible words to say as he held her, shaking with disbelief, anger, and a profound sense of loss. "Here we are , just the two of us , but we'll be ok, I promise. ". James , sighing in heartbroken defeat, held his daughter closer as she stirred. " I suppose some things never change. But I'm here , not going anywhere. " He lamented in the serenity , unsure how he stood with such a fragile life in his hands just hours after witnessing her entrance into the world with a now stranger at his side. Gazing in wonderment at her father, a pivotal axis to her entire world, her breathing fell against his palm. "Welcome to my world , kiddo, you're the only thing I have that counts , sweetheart. " His cracking voice questioned the silence , awaiting an answer he'd never receive . "Why must you look just like her? I suppose you look like me too, now that not so good , huh?" He smiled as his stare ambled out into the skyline, lost in the faint buildings and smog , willing back his agony. "How could she just-" he retracted , the rhetorical hopelessness evoking a sting of grief that would be his new companion in the night. But Lily, as she drifted to sleep, her fresh new pupils full of glassy hope , offered him solace. Even if that solace tore incremental fragments of his heart through his chest, it was solace all the same. Setting up makeshift camp in the hall, under the stringent ward lights, he chased sleep . With red-rimmed , insomnia bathed eyes, he bargainedtoo arresting for him to do so. Instead, his hands slid casually into his jeans as her lilt charmed the edges of his racing thoughts, slowing them into a calm pause. Before he noticed , they had circled the campus, and were already at her dorm , where he'd met with his mind for reprieve. Unlike a continuum, a vacuum of darkness swallowed his awareness for a bleak moment, and then his head jolted forward, wide awake again. The grit behind his nails , and the shadows under his sunken eyes , pooled deeper as the hours passed. He heard Lily stir , and he pictured the woman who discharged herself from the hospital, not leaving a reason in her wake. He could still taste her, feel her in his clothes, it sickened his heart as it pulsated with betrayal. "Right here Lily, I've got you. " his hoarse voice found her, and her fussing stopped in an instant. His softening voice whispers intangible phrases , he half sang, his deep-throated hum off balance from his persistent fatigue . A lullaby of his own , off key , intermingling with her cries. His eyes floated shut , and images of cowering under creaking stairs, the weight above him luring closer , his young screams pleading for mercy. "I didn't mean to , Dad-" everything grew colder, then a fierce heat drove through him , making him flinch at the recollection. A boot sailed past his head. Then a knife. James opened his eyes , his pulse already thundering out of sync with his infant daughter, whose fluttering heartbeat still seemed calmer. " I'm sorry you'll be in here a while longer. Can't take you home , yet. But you're gonna love your own crib." His fingers traced her delicate features , his thumb resting on her nose as she reached up and hooked his index finger, like a lifeline against a grim backdrop. "You can sleep, there'll be plenty of time to look at this mug in the morning." He mumbled as her hand fell away, splaying across her chest as she slipped away into a slumber. Returning to his haphazard scattering of belongings, he uncapped an energy drink , draining and crushing the aluminium under his fingers, the distorted metal absorbing his anguish and dismay.her earlier. It was the inevitability encroaching on his raw nerves as his fingers unlocked his phone, and scrolledinstinctive as he leaned in and his mouth found her bottom lip, savouring its fullness as he pulled away again, the moment fleeting but more than enough. "Thanks for her number. "Elara? I don't know. You discharged yourself , no I don't care where the helltonight" he whispered , his voice rough against her ear as she tucked away a strand of dark hair and stared into his gaze. "I'll see you are -she can't survive on air . No, but please just just tell me what I can do to fix -No, of course I love you, I'm alone in a hospital with our , well , my daughter .-" The phone went dead in his ear andafter practice, tomorrow, quarterback" she whispered back as he left it backflip into his lap with resignation. Unshaven, his rough jaw razed against his knuckles, the mild rays of morning bleeding into the room, embracing her in a blanket of warmth, the humidicrib encasing his daughter with a plastic film of isolation. "Morning , gorgeous " he muttered in the silence. "You're a fighter , huh? Don't worry , your Daddy is proud as hell of you kid -". On another whim of utter frustration he had to fight the torrent of unfiltered torment that toreher to wander past her fence , and disappear through his clenched teeth. "Pick up, please ...Elara? Oh God , just tell me why-No I haven't slept , she's in a critical condition -don't worry about it. I know it's heartbreaking-Oh I'm not going through hell right now ? No please I'm sorry-" . Again, the line died out in the shell of his ear, wrenching a knife through the lining of his stomach. Exhaustion gnawed ferociously on his brain, and he relented to sleep as it finally came , like a tower of building blocks , smashing him . "Evening princess, Daddy got so tired he passed out clean. You're such a good sleeper . Nurses probably took care of you huh? You're always gonna be in good hands here. " as he picked her up, her entire body fitting onto his forearm , he glanced at the clock. "God I was out a while...wasn't I ?" It was a peaceful calm that melted through his wired nerves, as he stood , stupefied , still holding Lily as she slept. He had lost all desire to move , it seemed to inconvenient to lay her down. And he wasn't truly at peace anywhere else. "Don't you dare wake up yet" he whispered into the cool night. Her breathing, rising and falling in a soothing rhythm against his skin, gave him a sense of something palpable ."I miss her , yknow, but I worry about her too."her door

USER: Is this paced well?ok? Victor glanced out across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concrete under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side. "So tired of all this," he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough. Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles. "Yo, Vic, you've been benching, eh?" one male voice called out to him from across the field. "She ain't gonna call you back, but I will!" another jibed in good humour. "As if I'd have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about--" Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark hair, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a rush of intoxication as he smiled back, enamoured . "Yeah, that's what we don't have time for , Vic " he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a polarising eclipse as he ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head. Her pristine white teeth, full lips and the echoes of her laughter interweaved through the blaring whistle of his coach. His legs screamed with lactic acid from running drills , and he found relief in the cooling breeze that brushed against his perspiration. In the quiet reprieve of the emptying arena, his thoughts flashed to his profoundly emptier shoe-box apartment. His hand, running along a faded imprint across his back, sent him chills . It was when his time was idle , his fingers would explore all the old wounds and he stopped himself; steeling his grip on his forearm. The impending evening promised him a decent meal , a sound night of sleep and insurmountable volumes of pay-per-view. Yet he felt exhausted as his mind flirted with the prospect of abandon. A night of rampant corruption, of revelry, and flames of his inexhaustible youth. That's when he felt a presence at his shoulder , and he lift his gaze. "Lara? How long have you been standing there?" he asked, broken from his distraction. "Not long, you look stressed out, is everything okay?" Her soft lilt fell on his ears , rendering him speechless . "Oh yeah. Just , life of a quarterback, y'know how hard it is being in demand right?" "Cheerleading coach and head cheerleader in an institution like this, yeah I think I might have a slight idea." Her laugh washed over him as his mind was soothed by its smoothness. "I have to get back out there , but I just wanted to say hey." Leaning forward, she pressed an open palm against his shoulder, leaving a slip of paper fluttering into his lap as she walked away. "Hey , to you too" he called out , in disorientation, fishing the scrap of paper from his lap. His fingers toyed with edge of the paper, and he slipped it into his pocket with resignation There was no answer as she disappeared into the haze of twilight that shimmered across the field . "What have we got ourselves into , huh?" . He grinned ruefully at the setting sun , with her number under his fingers as they returned to the crumpled paper and traced the digits with temptation . He sighed into the unfolding night as he rose from the bleachers and made his way toward the parking lot. After a long few hours spent in traffic , Victor curtailed the escalating effect of gridlock on his nerves by fiddling with the radio. Song after song, he surfed the channels , sifting through droning ballads and unrelated classics that remanded him vaguely of childhood. Unresolved, he switched the station off entirely, strumming a fabricated tune on his jeans , and humming in agitation. "C'mon" he willed the stagnant vehicles with an offset jaw, scratching at his shoulder blade and realigning his neck . As the faint honking of horns replaced the old classics that had been playing , he found himself trapped. His mind was transported to an afternoon from years back, one he never recalled often , and its vivid presence made him flinch. The sun had been a waning backdrop as he'd stood crying on a green lawn, plastic spade in hand. A sandpit laid under his bare feet, and a familiar voice thundered through him, grinding him to a halt . Tears streamed down his face , each one a grave mistake. "You have until the count of three to stop crying-" Looming above him, his fate was closing in as the authorising voice descended upon him. " One...I'm not playing around , Victor ...Two-" . Suddenly the blare of a horn sent sobering reality coursing through him as his eyes flew open and he slammed the accelerator, his memory entrenching itself in the dark corners of his subconscious as he drove in silence.The shadows of the highway painted themselves across his features in a haunting reflection of his solitude. Eventually he swung the leather wheel into its neutral position, unjamming the keys from the ignition . His long journey was over , but only just beginning as he encountered the stairs to his second floor apartment, , lethargy mocking him every step he endured. He fell onto his couch it misery, not paying the idiot box one iota of attention. Flashes of his friends, his studies , and lukewarm food, passed through his thoughts. And the occasional splice of Lara's embodiment of perfection made his void stomach flip. He then fell in an encompassing sleep, his entire psyche drowned in the salvation of dreamless peace . Sun came streaming into the claustrophobic living room, stirring Victor from his unconscious haven. His eyes , opening and closing again as he groaned, radiated the early morning and forced him awake. His hands drifted absent minded , to the intricate patterns just above the small of his back. His clenching teeth ground tighter and he fingered the imprint with disdain. Already unsure of how it had been inflicted , it was all a part of the blueprint that he covered day in , day out. Like a roadmap only he had the itinerary to. But as he folded deep creases into the map and buried it into his mind , it was safe in the shallows of his mind for another day . Retrieving the slip of paper from his jeans , her number jarred at his mind . He punched the string of digits into his phone , and glared at the screen, before locking it and prying himself off the couch . After showering, and shovelling a dry , milk-laced bowl of cereal down into his wrenching stomach, he stopped at his door. "Well , here goes nothin'" he muttered as he thumbed his phone's screen and his index finger touched upon "Lara" As her voice answered , it numbed the frayed edges of his mind for a second ." Hey, it's Victor. I found something in a rather compromising place yesterday, and I had to chase it up ... Yeah your number found its way to my lap. Oh it that so , huh? Sure . I think I can do that. How about that new fusion bar that just opened on the strip? Great, I'll swing by around eight. Looking forward to it." when he was sure the call was disconnected, he sighed cooly. "No idea what we're in for here " . He shrugged and hit the pavement for his morning jog, shaking the past night's worries from his physique as he belted the asphalt with momentum. Then it started as usual, Logan sprinted by, yelling in jest. "Victor , see you on the field later, hot stuff!" "Will do, you're ass had better be in shape , not going' easy on ya, buddy " Victor , beaming in relief at the normalcy , stunted his pace as she walked across her front yard, stopping at the bottle green - fence to join her friends , and his pulse elevated with her passing. He then found his gait slowing as his peripheral vision drank in Lara's figure, her curves contrasted against the angular wood panels. His tongue ran over his teeth as he contemplated approaching , his eyes instead gleaming in the fleeting sunlight that hit them. Shielding his gaze from the glare he maintained his jog ,and his mind carried to thoughts of the oncoming evening. Victor , twirling his fork through a saturated noodle, suppressed his urge to tackle the mouthful, his eyes resting on her lips . It was distracting enough , as she chewed with a delicacy and yet a hunger he admired somehow. "I guess things just got tough when I found myself living out of Ethan's car because I had nowhere else to go -" . Lara swallowed and swiped her napkin across her glossed lips, nodding in empathy. "Yeah, I can't imagine what you went through , Victor , to flee home and get an apartment off campus, I imagine it's difficult. But it's one thing I admire about you." "Yeah? Really... I ...Guess I'd never thought of it that way. I just did what I had to do to stay afloat. " Victor nudged the sesame sauce pooling around the pieces of chicken on his plate, her compliment harder to digest than his food. "Sure Victor , you've held yourself together better than anyone would . We all know about the homecoming game What happened to Ethan and what you did -" "Yeah" Victor met Lara's gaze , holding her green eyes in his view , almost mesmerising , inviting him to slip into their comforting focus. "When Ethan stopped breathing for three solid, those were the longest minutes of my life, it terrified me. For a long time I just wanted to escape the roar of the crowd. I just longed for some peace and quiet I suppose. I can't hear my own thoughts sometimes." Lara held his gaze , her eyes filled with empathy . "It's ok to need quiet , Victor . It's human . It's what makes you so much more than the star quarterback. You're a genuine type of guy, and I respect that, sure everyone looks up to you , but from where I sit, there's so much more , and I want to be the one lucky enough to share it. " Her words made his breath come a little faster as he finally found interest in his food , out of better avenue for escape , he dug in. "Well, from where I sit , I just feel lucky to be seen by someone so beautiful , and you know I don't talk for my health." Victor held her gaze with intense meaning, the light of the bar playing on his irises . She laughed, reaching out to hold his elbow for a brief moment, and he glanced at her hand , his breath slowing. " How about we get some air? A walk around campus ? " he offered , returning his gaze to her softened smile. As they crossed the quad , peppered with students passing here and there , he savoured the crisp air in his lungs. Her constant stream of harmonious chatter conveyed her nervousness, again tugging at his pulse. It was a pleasant sound against his own trepidation, and he wasn't about to interrupt her, it was too arresting for him to do so. Instead, his hands slid casually into his jeans as her lilt charmed the edges of his racing thoughts, slowing them into a calm pause. Before he noticed , they had circled the campus, and were already at her dorm , where he'd met with her earlier. It was instinctive as he leaned in and his mouth found her bottom lip, savouring its fullness as he pulled away again, the moment fleeting but more than enough. "Thanks for tonight" he whispered , his voice rough against her ear as she tucked away a strand of dark hair and stared into his gaze. "I'll see you after practice, tomorrow, quarterback" she whispered back as he left her to wander past her fence , and disappear through her door

USER: IsCould the pacing and density be an acceptable stylistic choice: Sweat crawled in slivering, unwholesome trails of vessel-breaking tears, bathing his eyelids in terror. A voice screamed at his unstable mind, questioning what his tremors had led him to forget. What his anxiety had buried from his access. His bleaching memory hazed in and out. With a strangled cry, he confessed, "I don't know what I did--I'm sorry!" His disemboweling bladder dropped, his scorching throat filled with a certain moisture. He wiped his nostrils against the back of his hand, a thick post-nasal plea escaping him. "Why do you make me do this, James? I don't want to do this ok? Victor glancedto you, but you won't listen, a voice loomed from above. "I didn't want to turn four! I'm sorry!" The plastic of a deflated balloon burst under the heavy thud of a boot. A jolt of horrified regret traveled down his spine. "I will never understand what it may take to discipline you, boy, but you don't deserve any of it--the toys, the food, the money I wasted..." James, reeling from his wound-up position on the floor, cried even harder. The lurid warmth of urine seeping around the tongues of his shoes, drowning the perforated leather with pale lemon stains. Tears unstopping; each one unseen under the shadow that cast itself across his face. As James opened his eyes, a melancholic gleam passed through them. He gazed down at her, beyond even what he could call perfect. "You're safe now , gorgeous. Can't believe you're four hours old ." Smiling, her tiny hazel eyes locked onto his matching brown and amber irises. He strangled the memory with a genuine grin of pride and admiration. The shining pain in his own exhausted eyes, from the extensive hours his calloused hand had spent being ripped apart, was now nothing, weightless, and forgotten. "Your mom , well...". Not that he had tangible words to say as he held her, shaking with disbelief, anger, and a profound sense of loss. "Here we are , just the two of us , but we'll be ok, I promise. ". James , sighing in heartbroken defeat, held his daughter closer as she stirred. " I suppose some things never change. But I'm here , not going anywhere. " He lamented in the serenity , unsure how he stood with such a fragile life in his hands just hours after witnessing her entrance into the world with a now stranger at his side. Gazing in wonderment at her father, a pivotal axis to her entire world, her breathing fell against his palm. "Welcome to my world , kiddo, you're the only thing I have that counts , sweetheart. " His cracking voice questioned the silence , awaiting an answer he'd never receive . "Why must you look just like her? I suppose you look like me too, now that not so good , huh?" He smiled as his stare ambled out into the skyline, lost in the faint buildings and smog , willing back his agony. "How could she just-" he retracted , the rhetorical hopelessness evoking a sting of grief that would be his new companion in the night. But Lily, as she drifted to sleep, her fresh new pupils full of glassy hope , offered him solace. Even if that solace tore incremental fragments of his heart through his chest, it was solace all the same. Setting up makeshift camp in the hall, under the stringent ward lights, he chased sleep . With red-rimmed , insomnia bathed eyes, he bargained with his mind for reprieve. Unlike a continuum, a vacuum of darkness swallowed his awareness for a bleak moment, and then his head jolted forward, wide awake again. The grit behind his nails , and the shadows under his sunken eyes , pooled deeper as the hours passed. He heard Lily stir , and he pictured the woman who discharged herself from the hospital, not leaving a reason in her wake. He could still taste her, feel her in his clothes, it sickened his heart as it pulsated with betrayal. "Right here Lily, I've got you. " his hoarse voice found her, and her fussing stopped in an instant. His softening voice whispers intangible phrases , he half sang, his deep-throated hum off balance from his persistent fatigue . A lullaby of his own , off key , intermingling with her cries. His eyes floated shut , and images of cowering under creaking stairs, the weight above him luring closer , his young screams pleading for mercy. "I didn't mean to , Dad-" everything grew colder, then a fierce heat drove through him , making him flinch at the recollection. A boot sailed past his head. Then a knife. James opened his eyes , his pulse already thundering out of sync with his infant daughter, whose fluttering heartbeat still seemed calmer. " I'm sorry you'll be in here a while longer. Can't take you home , yet. But you're gonna love your own crib." His fingers traced her delicate features , his thumb resting on her nose as she reached up and hooked his index finger, like a lifeline against a grim backdrop. "You can sleep, there'll be plenty of time to look at this mug in the morning." He mumbled as her hand fell away, splaying across the field, the sizzling heat blanching the concreteher chest as she slipped away into a slumber. Returning to his haphazard scattering of belongings, he uncapped an energy drink , draining and crushing the aluminium under the bleachers. Another afternoon of training was wrapping up around him, with random teammates clapping him over the shoulder as they jogged past. His tendons ached with fatigue, and he attempted to ease the strain in his neck by stretching it wearily to the side. "So tired of all this," he muttered, despite the sense of fulfillment pulsing through his veins. It never quite seemed enough. Removing the residual sweat from his face with the hem of his jersey, he wrenched at the corner and dragged it across his brow. As he craned his neck, his taut abs caught the afternoon sunshine, and he was assaulted by a barrage of wolf whistles. "Yo, Vic, you've been benching, eh?" one male voice called out to him from across the field. "She ain't gonna call you back, but I will!" another jibed in good humour. "As if I'd have the time for that, my life is so stressful I could just about--" Victor lamented, his attention suddenly swallowed by a passing silhouette, a female figure with a perfect, core-of-an apple shape. His stare glassed over as Lara sent him a smile from behind her dark hair, her olive complexion glowing in the orange light as she came into view . Her light green eyes lingered just a moment too long and his stomach shot him a rush of intoxication as he smiled back, enamoured . "Yeah, that's what we don't have time for , Vic " he mumbled under his breath, well out of her earshot as she elapsed him like a polarising eclipse as he ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth, shaking his head. Her pristine white teeth, full lips and the echoes of her laughter interweaved through the blaring whistle of his coach. His legs screamed with lactic acid from running drills , and he found relief in the cooling breeze that brushed against his perspiration. In the quiet reprieve of the emptying arena, his thoughts flashed to his profoundly emptier shoe-box apartment. His hand, running along a faded imprint across his back, sent him chills .his fingers, the distorted metal absorbing his anguish and dismay. It was when his time was idle ,the inevitability encroaching on his raw nerves as his fingers would explore all the old wounds and he stopped himself; steeling his gripunlocked his phone, and scrolled for her number. "Elara? I don't know. You discharged yourself , no I don't care where the hell you are -she can't survive on his forearm. The impending evening promised him a decent meal , a sound night of sleep and insurmountable volumes of pay-per-view. Yet he felt exhausted as his mind flirted with the prospect of abandon. A night of rampant corruption, of revelry, and flames of his inexhaustible youth. That's when he felt a presence at his shoulder , and he lift his gaze. "Lara? How long have you been standing there?" he asked, broken from his distraction. "Not long, you look stressed out, is everything okay?" Her soft lilt fell on his ears , rendering him speechlessair . "Oh yeah. Just , life of a quarterback, y'know how hard it is being in demand right?" "Cheerleading coach and head cheerleader in an institution like this, yeah I think I might have a slight idea." Her laugh washed over him as his mind was soothed by its smoothness. "I have to get back out there ,No, but Iplease just wanted to say hey." Leaning forward, she pressed an open palm against his shoulder, leaving a slip of paper fluttering into his lap as she walked away. "Hey , to you too" he called out , in disorientation, fishing the scrap of paper from his lap. His fingers toyed with edge of the paper, and he slipped it into his pocket with resignation There was no answer as she disappeared into the haze of twilight that shimmered across the field . "What have we got ourselves into , huh?" . He grinned ruefully at the setting sun , with her number under his fingers as they returned to the crumpled paper and traced the digits with temptation . He sighed into the unfolding night as he rose from the bleachers and made his way toward the parking lot. After a long few hours spent in traffic , Victor curtailed the escalating effect of gridlock on his nerves by fiddling with the radio. Song after song, he surfed the channels , sifting through droning ballads and unrelated classics that remanded him vaguely of childhood. Unresolved, he switched the station off entirely, strumming a fabricated tune on his jeans , and humming in agitation. "C'mon" he willed the stagnant vehicles with an offset jaw, scratching at his shoulder blade and realigning his neck . As the faint honking of horns replaced the old classics that had been playing , he found himself trapped. His mind was transported to an afternoon from years back, one he never recalled often , and its vivid presence made him flinch. The sun had been a waning backdrop as he'd stood crying on a green lawn, plastic spade in hand. A sandpit laid under his bare feet, and a familiar voice thundered through him, grinding him to a halt . Tears streamed down his face , each one a grave mistake. "You have until the count of three to stop crying-" Looming above him, his fate was closing in as the authorising voice descended upon him. " One...I'm not playing around , Victor ...Two-" . Suddenly the blare of a horn sent sobering reality coursing through him as his eyes flew open and he slammed the accelerator, his memory entrenching itself in the dark corners of his subconscious as he drove in silence.The shadows of the highway painted themselves across his features in a haunting reflection of his solitude. Eventually he swung the leather wheel into its neutral position, unjamming the keys from the ignition . His long journey was over , but only just beginning as he encountered the stairs to his second floor apartment, , lethargy mocking him every step he endured. He fell onto his couch it misery, not paying the idiot box one iota of attention. Flashes of his friends, his studies , and lukewarm food, passed through his thoughts. And the occasional splice of Lara's embodiment of perfection made his void stomach flip. He then fell in an encompassing sleep, his entire psyche drowned in the salvation of dreamless peace . Sun came streaming into the claustrophobic living room, stirring Victor from his unconscious haven. His eyes , opening and closing again as he groaned, radiated the early morning and forced him awake. His hands drifted absent minded , to the intricate patterns just above the small of his back. His clenching teeth ground tighter and he fingered the imprint with disdain. Already unsure of how it had been inflicted , it was all a part of the blueprint that he covered day in , day out. Like a roadmap only he had the itinerary to. But as he folded deep creases into the map and buried it into his mind , it was safe in the shallows of his mind for another day . Retrieving the slip of paper from his jeans , her number jarred at his mind . He punched the string of digits into his phone , and glared at the screen, before locking it and prying himself off the couch . After showering, and shovelling a dry , milk-laced bowl of cereal down into his wrenching stomach, he stopped at his door. "Well , here goes nothin'" he muttered as he thumbed his phone's screen and his index finger touched upon "Lara" As her voice answered , it numbed the frayed edges of his mind for a second ." Hey, it's Victor. I found something in a rather compromising place yesterday, and I had to chase it up ... Yeah your number found its way to my lap. Oh it that so , huh? Sure . I thinktell me what I can do that. Howto fix -No, of course I love you, I'm alone in a hospital with our , well , my daughter .-" The phone went dead in his ear and he left it backflip into his lap with resignation. Unshaven, his rough jaw razed against his knuckles, the mild rays of morning bleeding into the room, embracing her in a blanket of warmth, the humidicrib encasing his daughter with a plastic film of isolation. "Morning , gorgeous " he muttered in the silence. "You're a fighter , huh? Don't worry , your Daddy is proud as hell of you kid -". On another whim of utter frustration he had to fight the torrent of unfiltered torment that tore through his clenched teeth. "Pick up, please ...Elara? Oh God , just tell me why-No I haven't slept , she's in a critical condition -don't worry about that new fusion bar that just openedit. I know it's heartbreaking-Oh I'm not going through hell right now ? No please I'm sorry-" . Again, the line died out in the shell of his ear, wrenching a knife through the lining of his stomach. Exhaustion gnawed ferociously on the strip? Great, I'll swing by around eight. Looking forward to it." when hehis brain, and he relented to sleep as it finally came , like a tower of building blocks , smashing him . "Evening princess, Daddy got so tired he passed out clean. You're such a good sleeper . Nurses probably took care of you huh? You're always gonna be in good hands here. " as he picked her up, her entire body fitting onto his forearm , he glanced at the clock. "God I was sure the call was disconnected, he sighed cooly. "No idea what we're in for here " . He shrugged and hit the pavement for his morning jog, shaking the past night's worries from his physique as he belted the asphalt with momentum. Then it started as usual, Logan sprinted by, yelling in jest. "Victor , see you on the field later, hot stuff!" "Will do, you're ass had better be in shape , not going' easy on ya, buddy " Victor , beaming in relief at the normalcy , stunted his pace as she walked across her front yard, stopping at the bottle green - fence to join her friends , and his pulse elevated with her passing. He then found his gait slowing as his peripheral vision drank in Lara's figure, her curves contrasted against the angular wood panels. His tongue ran over his teeth as he contemplated approaching , his eyes instead gleaming in the fleeting sunlight that hit them. Shielding his gaze from the glare he maintained his jog ,and his mind carried to thoughts of the oncoming evening. Victor , twirling his fork through a saturated noodle, suppressed his urge to tackle the mouthful, his eyes resting on her lips .out a while...wasn't I ?" It was distracting enough ,a peaceful calm that melted through his wired nerves, as he stood , stupefied , still holding Lily as she chewed with a delicacy and yet a hunger he admired somehow. "I guess things just got tough when I found myself living out of Ethan's car because Islept. He had nowhere else to go -" . Lara swallowed and swiped her napkin across her glossed lips, nodding in empathy. "Yeah, I can't imagine whatlost all desire to move , it seemed to inconvenient to lay her down. And he wasn't truly at peace anywhere else. "Don't you went through , Victor , to flee home and get an apartment off campus, I imagine it's difficult. But it's one thing I admiredare wake up yet" he whispered into the cool night. Her breathing, rising and falling in a soothing rhythm against his skin, gave him a sense of something palpable ."I miss her , yknow, but I worry about you." "Yeah? Really... I ...Guess I'd never thought of it that way. I just did what I had to do to stay afloat. " Victor nudged the sesame sauce pooling around the pieces of chicken on his plate, her compliment harder to digest than his food. "Sure Victor , you've held yourself together better than anyone would . We all know about the homecoming game What happened to Ethan and what you did -" "Yeah" Victor met Lara's gaze , holding her green eyes in his view , almost mesmerising , inviting him to slip into their comforting focus. "When Ethan stopped breathing for three solid, those were the longest minutes of my life, it terrified me. For a long time I just wanted to escape the roar of the crowd. I just longed for some peace and quiet I suppose. I can't hear my own thoughts sometimes." Lara held his gaze , her eyes filled with empathy . "It's ok to need quiet , Victor . It's human . It's what makes you so much more than the star quarterback. You're a genuine type of guy, and I respect that, sure everyone looks up to you , but from where I sit, there's so much more , and I want to be the one lucky enough to share it. " Her words made his breath come a little faster as he finally found interest in his food , out of better avenue for escape , he dug in. "Well, from where I sit , I just feel lucky to be seen by someone so beautiful , and you know I don't talk for my health." Victor held her gaze with intense meaning, the light of the bar playing on his irises . She laughed, reaching out to hold his elbow for a brief moment, and he glanced at her hand , his breath slowing. " How about we get some air? A walk around campus ? " he offered , returning his gaze to her softened smile. As they crossed the quad , peppered with students passing here and there , he savoured the crisp air in his lungs. Her constant stream of harmonious chatter conveyed her nervousness, again tugging at his pulse. It was a pleasant sound against his own trepidation, and he wasn't about to interrupt her, it was too arresting for him to do so. Instead, his hands slid casually into his jeans as her lilt charmed the edges of his racing thoughts, slowing them into a calm pause. Before he noticed , they had circled the campus, and were already at her dorm , where he'd met with her earlier. It was instinctive as he leaned in and his mouth found her bottom lip, savouring its fullness as he pulled away again, the moment fleeting but more than enough. "Thanks for tonight" he whispered , his voice rough against her ear as she tucked away a strand of dark hair and stared into his gaze. "I'll see you after practice, tomorrow, quarterback" she whispered back as he left her to wander past her fence , and disappear through her doorher too"

USER: Could the pacing and density be an acceptable stylistic choice: Sweat crawled in slivering, unwholesome trails of vessel-breaking tears, bathing his eyelids in terror. A voice screamed at his unstable mind, questioning what his tremors had led him to forget. What his anxiety had buried from his access. His bleaching memory hazed in and out. With a strangled cry, he confessed, "I don't know what I did--I'm sorry!" His disemboweling bladder dropped, his scorching throat filled with a certain moisture. He wiped his nostrils against the back of his hand, a thick post-nasal plea escaping him. "Why do you make me do this, James? I don't want to do this to you, but you won't listen,listen," a voice loomed from above. "I didn't want to turn four! I'm sorry!" The plastic of a deflated balloon burst under the heavy thud of a boot. A jolt of horrified regret traveled down his spine. "I will never understand what it may take to discipline you, boy, but you don't deserve any of it--the toys, the food, the money I wasted..." James, reeling from his wound-up position on the floor, cried even harder. The lurid warmth of urine seeping around the tongues of his shoes, drowning the perforated leather with pale lemon stains. Tears unstopping; each one unseen under the shadow that cast itself across his face. As James opened his eyes, a melancholic gleam passed through them. He gazed down at her, beyond even what he could call perfect. "You're safe now ,now, gorgeous. Can't believe you're four hours old ."old." Smiling, her tiny hazel eyes locked onto his matching brown and amber irises. He strangled the memory with a genuine grin of pride and admiration. The shining pain in his own exhausted eyes, from the extensive hours his calloused hand had spent being ripped apart, was now nothing, weightless, and forgotten. "Your mom , well...".mom, well..." Not that he had tangible words to say as he held her, shaking with disbelief, anger, and a profound sense of loss. "Here we are ,are, just the two of us ,us, but we'll be ok, I promise. ". James ,promise." James, sighing in heartbroken defeat, held his daughter closer as she stirred. " I"I suppose some things never change. But I'm here ,here, not going anywhere. "anywhere." He lamented in the serenity ,serenity, unsure how he stood with such a fragile life in his hands just hours after witnessing her entrance into the world with a now stranger at his side. Gazing in wonderment at her father, a pivotal axis to her entire world, her breathing fell against his palm. "Welcome to my world ,world, kiddo, you're the only thing I have that counts , sweetheart. "counts, sweetheart." His cracking voice questioned the silence ,silence, awaiting an answer he'd never receive .receive. "Why must you look just like her? I suppose you look like me too, now that not so good ,good, huh?" He smiled as his stare ambled out into the skyline, lost in the faint buildings and smog ,smog, willing back his agony. "How could she just-" he retracted ,retracted, the rhetorical hopelessness evoking a sting of grief that would be his new companion in the night. But Lily, as she drifted to sleep, her fresh new pupils full of glassy hope ,hope, offered him solace. Even if that solace tore incremental fragments of his heart through his chest, it was solace all the same. Setting up makeshift camp in the hall, under the stringent ward lights, he chased sleep .sleep. With red-rimmed ,red-rimmed, insomnia bathed eyes, he bargained with his mind for reprieve. Unlike a continuum, a vacuum of darkness swallowed his awareness for a bleak moment, and then his head jolted forward, wide awake again. The grit behind his nails ,nails, and the shadows under his sunken eyes ,eyes, pooled deeper as the hours passed. He heard Lily stir ,stir, and he pictured the woman who discharged herself from the hospital, not leaving a reason in her wake. He could still taste her, feel her in his clothes, it sickened his heart as it pulsated with betrayal. "Right here Lily, I've got you. "you." his hoarse voice found her, and her fussing stopped in an instant. His softening voice whispers intangible phrases ,phrases, he half sang, his deep-throated hum off balance from his persistent fatigue .fatigue. A lullaby of his own ,own, off key ,key, intermingling with her cries. His eyes floated shut ,shut, and images of cowering under creaking stairs, the weight above him luring closer ,closer, his young screams pleading for mercy. "I didn't mean to ,to, Dad-" everything grew colder, then a fierce heat drove through him ,him, making him flinch at the recollection. A boot sailed past his head. Then a knife. James opened his eyes ,eyes, his pulse already thundering out of sync with his infant daughter, whose fluttering heartbeat still seemed calmer. " I'm"I'm sorry you'll be in here a while longer. Can't take you home ,home, yet. But you're gonna love your own crib." His fingers traced her delicate features ,features, his thumb resting on her nose as she reached up and hooked his index finger, like a lifeline against a grim backdrop. "You can sleep, there'll be plenty of time to look at this mug in the morning." He mumbled as her hand fell away, splaying across her chest as she slipped away into a slumber. Returning to his haphazard scattering of belongings, he uncapped an energy drink ,drink, draining and crushing the aluminium under his fingers, the distorted metal absorbing his anguish and dismay. It was the inevitability encroaching on his raw nerves as his fingers unlocked his phone, and scrolled for her number. "Elara? I don't know. You discharged yourself ,yourself, no I don't care where the hell you are -she can't survive on air .air. No, but please just just tell me what I can do to fix -No, of course I love you, I'm alone in a hospital with our , well ,our, well, my daughter .-"daughter.-" The phone went dead in his ear and he left it backflip into his lap with resignation. Unshaven, his rough jaw razed against his knuckles, the mild rays of morning bleeding into the room, embracing her in a blanket of warmth, the humidicrib encasing his daughter with a plastic film of isolation. "Morning , gorgeous ""Morning, gorgeous" he muttered in the silence. "You're a fighter ,fighter, huh? Don't worry ,worry, your Daddy is proud as hell of you kid -".kid-". On another whim of utter frustration he had to fight the torrent of unfiltered torment that tore through his clenched teeth. "Pick up, please ...Elara?please...Elara? Oh God ,God, just tell me why-No I haven't slept ,slept, she's in a critical condition -don'tcondition-don't worry about it. I know it's heartbreaking-Oh I'm not going through hell right now ?now? No please I'm sorry-" .sorry-". Again, the line died out in the shell of his ear, wrenching a knife through the lining of his stomach. Exhaustion gnawed ferociously on his brain, and he relented to sleep as it finally came ,came, like a tower of building blocks ,blocks, smashing him .him. "Evening princess, Daddy got so tired he passed out clean. You're such a good sleeper .sleeper. Nurses probably took care of you huh? You're always gonna be in goodsafe hands here. "here." as he picked her up, her entire body fitting onto his forearm ,forearm, he glanced at the clock. "God I was out a while...wasn't I ?"I?" It was a peaceful calm that melted through his wired nerves, as he stood , stupefied ,stood, stupefied, still holding Lily as she slept. He had lost all desire to move ,move, it seemed to inconvenient to lay her down. And he wasn't truly at peace anywhere else. "Don't you dare wake up yet" he whispered into the cool night. Her breathing, rising and falling in a soothing rhythm against his skin, gave him a sense of something palpable ."Ipalpable. "I miss her , yknow,her, you know, but I worry about her too" But she was already a ghost. Three months later :

USER: Please break this into paragraphs without altering the wording, to help increase the pace : Sweat crawled in slivering, unwholesome trails of vessel-breaking tears, bathing his eyelids in terror. A voice screamed at his unstable mind, questioning what his tremors had led him to forget. What his anxiety had buried from his access. His bleaching memory hazed in and out. With a strangled cry, he confessed, "I don't know what I did--I'm sorry!" His disemboweling bladder dropped, his scorching throat filled with a certain moisture. He wiped his nostrils against the back of his hand, a thick post-nasal plea escaping him. "Why do you make me do this, James? I don't want to do this to you, but you won't listen,"listen, a voice loomed from above. "I didn't want to turn four! I'm sorry!" The plastic of a deflated balloon burst under the heavy thud of a boot. A jolt of horrified regret traveled down his spine. "I will never understand what it may take to discipline you, boy, but you don't deserve any of it--the toys, the food, the money I wasted..." James, reeling from his wound-up position on the floor, cried even harder. The lurid warmth of urine seeping around the tongues of his shoes, drowning the perforated leather with pale lemon stains. Tears unstopping; each one unseen under the shadow that cast itself across his face. As James opened his eyes, a melancholic gleam passed through them. He gazed down at her, beyond even what he could call perfect. "You're safe now,now , gorgeous. Can't believe you're four hours old."old ." Smiling, her tiny hazel eyes locked onto his matching brown and amber irises. He strangled the memory with a genuine grin of pride and admiration. The shining pain in his own exhausted eyes, from the extensive hours his calloused hand had spent being ripped apart, was now nothing, weightless, and forgotten. "Your mom, well..."mom , well...". Not that he had tangible words to say as he held her, shaking with disbelief, anger, and a profound sense of loss. "Here we are,are , just the two of us,us , but we'll be ok, I promise." James,promise. ". James , sighing in heartbroken defeat, held his daughter closer as she stirred. "I" I suppose some things never change. But I'm here,here , not going anywhere."anywhere. " He lamented in the serenity,serenity , unsure how he stood with such a fragile life in his hands just hours after witnessing her entrance into the world with a now stranger at his side. Gazing in wonderment at her father, a pivotal axis to her entire world, her breathing fell against his palm. "Welcome to my world,world , kiddo, you're the only thing I have that counts, sweetheart."counts , sweetheart. " His cracking voice questioned the silence,silence , awaiting an answer he'd never receive.receive . "Why must you look just like her? I suppose you look like me too, now that not so good,good , huh?" He smiled as his stare ambled out into the skyline, lost in the faint buildings and smog,smog , willing back his agony. "How could she just-" he retracted,retracted , the rhetorical hopelessness evoking a sting of grief that would be his new companion in the night. But Lily, as she drifted to sleep, her fresh new pupils full of glassy hope,hope , offered him solace. Even if that solace tore incremental fragments of his heart through his chest, it was solace all the same. Setting up makeshift camp in the hall, under the stringent ward lights, he chased sleep.sleep . With red-rimmed,red-rimmed , insomnia bathed eyes, he bargained with his mind for reprieve. Unlike a continuum, a vacuum of darkness swallowed his awareness for a bleak moment, and then his head jolted forward, wide awake again. The grit behind his nails,nails , and the shadows under his sunken eyes,eyes , pooled deeper as the hours passed. He heard Lily stir,stir , and he pictured the woman who discharged herself from the hospital, not leaving a reason in her wake. He could still taste her, feel her in his clothes, it sickened his heart as it pulsated with betrayal. "Right here Lily, I've got you."you. " his hoarse voice found her, and her fussing stopped in an instant. His softening voice whispers intangible phrases,phrases , he half sang, his deep-throated hum off balance from his persistent fatigue.fatigue . A lullaby of his own,own , off key,key , intermingling with her cries. His eyes floated shut,shut , and images of cowering under creaking stairs, the weight above him luring closer,closer , his young screams pleading for mercy. "I didn't mean to,to , Dad-" everything grew colder, then a fierce heat drove through him,him , making him flinch at the recollection. A boot sailed past his head. Then a knife. James opened his eyes,eyes , his pulse already thundering out of sync with his infant daughter, whose fluttering heartbeat still seemed calmer. "I'm" I'm sorry you'll be in here a while longer. Can't take you home,home , yet. But you're gonna love your own crib." His fingers traced her delicate features,features , his thumb resting on her nose as she reached up and hooked his index finger, like a lifeline against a grim backdrop. "You can sleep, there'll be plenty of time to look at this mug in the morning." He mumbled as her hand fell away, splaying across her chest as she slipped away into a slumber. Returning to his haphazard scattering of belongings, he uncapped an energy drink,drink , draining and crushing the aluminium under his fingers, the distorted metal absorbing his anguish and dismay. It was the inevitability encroaching on his raw nerves as his fingers unlocked his phone, and scrolled for her number. "Elara? I don't know. You discharged yourself,yourself , no I don't care where the hell you are -she can't survive on air.air . No, but please just just tell me what I can do to fix -No, of course I love you, I'm alone in a hospital with our, well,our , well , my daughter.-"daughter .-" The phone went dead in his ear and he left it backflip into his lap with resignation. Unshaven, his rough jaw razed against his knuckles, the mild rays of morning bleeding into the room, embracing her in a blanket of warmth, the humidicrib encasing his daughter with a plastic film of isolation. "Morning, gorgeous""Morning , gorgeous " he muttered in the silence. "You're a fighter,fighter , huh? Don't worry,worry , your Daddy is proud as hell of you kid-".kid -". On another whim of utter frustration he had to fight the torrent of unfiltered torment that tore through his clenched teeth. "Pick up, please...Elara?please ...Elara? Oh God,God , just tell me why-No I haven't slept,slept , she's in a critical condition-don'tcondition -don't worry about it. I know it's heartbreaking-Oh I'm not going through hell right now?now ? No please I'm sorry-".sorry-" . Again, the line died out in the shell of his ear, wrenching a knife through the lining of his stomach. Exhaustion gnawed ferociously on his brain, and he relented to sleep as it finally came,came , like a tower of building blocks,blocks , smashing him.him . "Evening princess, Daddy got so tired he passed out clean. You're such a good sleeper.sleeper . Nurses probably took care of you huh? You're always gonna be in safegood hands here."here. " as he picked her up, her entire body fitting onto his forearm,forearm , he glanced at the clock. "God I was out a while...wasn't I?"I ?" It was a peaceful calm that melted through his wired nerves, as he stood, stupefied,stood , stupefied , still holding Lily as she slept. He had lost all desire to move,move , it seemed to inconvenient to lay her down. And he wasn't truly at peace anywhere else. "Don't you dare wake up yet" he whispered into the cool night. Her breathing, rising and falling in a soothing rhythm against his skin, gave him a sense of something palpable. "Ipalpable ."I miss her, you know,her , yknow, but I worry about her too" But she was already a ghost. Three months later :

USER: Please break this into paragraphs without altering the wording, to help increase the pace : Sweat crawled in slivering, unwholesome trails of vessel-breaking tears, bathing his eyelids in terror. A voice screamed at his unstable mind, questioning what his tremors had led him to forget. What his anxiety had buried from his access. His bleaching memory hazed in and out. With a strangled cry, he confessed, "I don't know what I did--I'm sorry!" His disemboweling bladder dropped, his scorching throat filled with a certain moisture. He wiped his nostrils against the back of his hand, a thick post-nasal plea escaping him. "Why do you make me do this, James? I don't want to do this to you, but you won't listen,listen," a voice loomed from above. "I didn't want to turn four! I'm sorry!" The plastic of a deflated balloon burst under the heavy thud of a boot. A jolt of horrified regret traveled down his spine. "I will never understand what it may take to discipline you, boy, but you don't deserve any of it--the toys, the food, the money I wasted..." James, reeling from his wound-up position on the floor, cried even harder. The lurid warmth of urine seeping around the tongues of his shoes, drowning the perforated leather with pale lemon stains. Tears unstopping; each one unseen under the shadow that cast itself across his face. As James opened his eyes, a melancholic gleam passed through them. He gazed down at her, beyond even what he could call perfect. "You're safe now ,now, gorgeous. Can't believe you're four hours old ."old." Smiling, her tiny hazel eyes locked onto his matching brown and amber irises. He strangled the memory with a genuine grin of pride and admiration. The shining pain in his own exhausted eyes, from the extensive hours his calloused hand had spent being ripped apart, was now nothing, weightless, and forgotten. "Your mom , well...".mom, well..." Not that he had tangible words to say as he held her, shaking with disbelief, anger, and a profound sense of loss. "Here we are ,are, just the two of us ,us, but we'll be ok, I promise. ". James ,promise." James, sighing in heartbroken defeat, held his daughter closer as she stirred. " I"I suppose some things never change. But I'm here ,here, not going anywhere. "anywhere." He lamented in the serenity ,serenity, unsure how he stood with such a fragile life in his hands just hours after witnessing her entrance into the world with a now stranger at his side. Gazing in wonderment at her father, a pivotal axis to her entire world, her breathing fell against his palm. "Welcome to my world ,world, kiddo, you're the only thing I have that counts , sweetheart. "counts, sweetheart." His cracking voice questioned the silence ,silence, awaiting an answer he'd never receive .receive. "Why must you look just like her? I suppose you look like me too, now that not so good ,good, huh?" He smiled as his stare ambled out into the skyline, lost in the faint buildings and smog ,smog, willing back his agony. "How could she just-" he retracted ,retracted, the rhetorical hopelessness evoking a sting of grief that would be his new companion in the night. But Lily, as she drifted to sleep, her fresh new pupils full of glassy hope ,hope, offered him solace. Even if that solace tore incremental fragments of his heart through his chest, it was solace all the same. Setting up makeshift camp in the hall, under the stringent ward lights, he chased sleep .sleep. With red-rimmed ,red-rimmed, insomnia bathed eyes, he bargained with his mind for reprieve. Unlike a continuum, a vacuum of darkness swallowed his awareness for a bleak moment, and then his head jolted forward, wide awake again. The grit behind his nails ,nails, and the shadows under his sunken eyes ,eyes, pooled deeper as the hours passed. He heard Lily stir ,stir, and he pictured the woman who discharged herself from the hospital, not leaving a reason in her wake. He could still taste her, feel her in his clothes, it sickened his heart as it pulsated with betrayal. "Right here Lily, I've got you. "you." his hoarse voice found her, and her fussing stopped in an instant. His softening voice whispers intangible phrases ,phrases, he half sang, his deep-throated hum off balance from his persistent fatigue .fatigue. A lullaby of his own ,own, off key ,key, intermingling with her cries. His eyes floated shut ,shut, and images of cowering under creaking stairs, the weight above him luring closer ,closer, his young screams pleading for mercy. "I didn't mean to ,to, Dad-" everything grew colder, then a fierce heat drove through him ,him, making him flinch at the recollection. A boot sailed past his head. Then a knife. James opened his eyes ,eyes, his pulse already thundering out of sync with his infant daughter, whose fluttering heartbeat still seemed calmer. " I'm"I'm sorry you'll be in here a while longer. Can't take you home ,home, yet. But you're gonna love your own crib." His fingers traced her delicate features ,features, his thumb resting on her nose as she reached up and hooked his index finger, like a lifeline against a grim backdrop. "You can sleep, there'll be plenty of time to look at this mug in the morning." He mumbled as her hand fell away, splaying across her chest as she slipped away into a slumber. Returning to his haphazard scattering of belongings, he uncapped an energy drink ,drink, draining and crushing the aluminium under his fingers, the distorted metal absorbing his anguish and dismay. It was the inevitability encroaching on his raw nerves as his fingers unlocked his phone, and scrolled for her number. "Elara? I don't know. You discharged yourself ,yourself, no I don't care where the hell you are -she can't survive on air .air. No, but please just just tell me what I can do to fix -No, of course I love you, I'm alone in a hospital with our , well ,our, well, my daughter .-"daughter.-" The phone went dead in his ear and he left it backflip into his lap with resignation. Unshaven, his rough jaw razed against his knuckles, the mild rays of morning bleeding into the room, embracing her in a blanket of warmth, the humidicrib encasing his daughter with a plastic film of isolation. "Morning , gorgeous ""Morning, gorgeous" he muttered in the silence. "You're a fighter ,fighter, huh? Don't worry ,worry, your Daddy is proud as hell of you kid -".kid-". On another whim of utter frustration he had to fight the torrent of unfiltered torment that tore through his clenched teeth. "Pick up, please ...Elara?please...Elara? Oh God ,God, just tell me why-No I haven't slept ,slept, she's in a critical condition -don'tcondition-don't worry about it. I know it's heartbreaking-Oh I'm not going through hell right now ?now? No please I'm sorry-" .sorry-". Again, the line died out in the shell of his ear, wrenching a knife through the lining of his stomach. Exhaustion gnawed ferociously on his brain, and he relented to sleep as it finally came ,came, like a tower of building blocks ,blocks, smashing him .him. "Evening princess, Daddy got so tired he passed out clean. You're such a good sleeper .sleeper. Nurses probably took care of you huh? You're always gonna be in good hands here. "here." as he picked her up, her entire body fitting onto his forearm ,forearm, he glanced at the clock. "God I was out a while...wasn't I ?"I?" It was a peaceful calm that melted through his wired nerves, as he stood , stupefied ,stood, stupefied, still holding Lily as she slept. He had lost all desire to move ,move, it seemed to inconvenient to lay her down. And he wasn't truly at peace anywhere else. "Don't you dare wake up yet" he whispered into the cool night. Her breathing, rising and falling in a soothing rhythm against his skin, gave him a sense of something palpable ."Ipalpable. "I miss her , yknow,her, you know, but I worry about her too" But she never returned. Three months had passed, and James had finally travelled across the country with his daughter to their Californian apartment. Lily had a healthy sparkle in her deep hazel eyes , reflecting the bright blue sky in flecks . "Breathe in that sweet air" James slowed his usual pace , running lakeside of the winding path, an old routine. And she did, in lungfuls , unlike her first days of life in the humidicrib, where air had been fought for. It was liberation. In a sombre sort of way , he felt free of the worry of Elara. If she cared about their daughter, why would she have evaporated. Into nothing. He found heart in her absence, albeit it being nonsensical. Maybe she was better gone.