Aly Martinez

“It's always darkest before dawn. We just have to wait a little while longer. The sun always rises.”

“It’s different and bold. It stands out amongst a blank world of black, white, and gray. Orange is the early morning sun stretching across the sky and the color of a burning ember standing tall in the middle of a beach bonfire. It’s leaves in the fall, carrots in Nana’s vegetable soup on a cold winter day, tulips in the spring, and the ladybugs in the middle of the grassy park on a hot summer afternoon. Orange is life. It’s unexpected but beautiful.”

“I couldn't keep doing this to myself. One day, I was going to wake up and realize that, in my desperate escape from the pain in the present, I'd let the future pass me by.”

“I became utterly addicted to her and the escape from reality we provided each other. Throughout the years, she had boyfriends and I had girlfriends, but there wasn't a single night that I didn’t hear her voice.”