The name’s Zed, Zachary Clermont for long. I usually don’t award that liberty to many people, but seeing as how I won’t meet most, or any, of you, I don’t really care if you know my full name.  Sucks, doesn’t it? I ultimately digress—I’m here to present to the general public a series of stories, some of which happened to me and the others to people around me—you’ll never know exactly whose narrative you’ll be reading. Each of these short stories [sic] will be presented in the third person, and I, your grossly inadequate narrator will be the stand-in for every male protagonist or antagonist; whichever side you choose (some choices are easier than others). The theme? Who knows—it’s somewhere treading the line between the foggy, opaque, never-clear “love” and decidedly certain, destined, unfailing (think about it) “lust.”  Again, feel free to form your own opinions, hence the third person—let’s just be on the same page from the beginning.     

            This isn’t about love; this isn’t about lust; it’s about the inquisitively daft relationship they form because like Harry Potter and Voldemort, “one cannot live while the other survives,” or something to that effect…People ignore this truth and it is why so many relationships fail today. Whether it’s starting a relationship or protecting an almost wickless candle in the wind. That sounds worse than it is—I’m not a pessimist about love, I’m just a very stern critic of today’s forms of love (or lack thereof). Many relationships have survived the winds of time and it’s because they either knowingly or unknowingly recognized the same thing. Lust isn’t a sin when coupled with pure love, and likewise, love loses is meaningless when emaciated of lust. I’ll let it be for now, I’d hate for you to think I’m biased—I certainly tried my hardest to keep my opinions and philosophies well away from here. I pray you trust me on this, given that I told you my name and all.  Thus, a mutual trust binds us; you must keep these stolen memoirs to yourselves.