Collateral Damage

So, how do you look at someone who reminds you so much of yourself and do to them what someone did to you years earlier?

How do you tell them that the way you feel is in no way reflective of the way they feel?

How do you rip someone's heart out and live with yourself?

Am I just so damaged that I will allow this drama to play itself out as if I weren't a part of it?

Is there a gentle way to let someone down, when you know it is going to rip them apart?

Or do you allow yourself get ripped to shreds, a little at a time, for the sake of someone you don't even really know?

Which is worse-a surgical strike, or the delay of action which leads to greater collateral damage?

Dating is war.

I hate war.