i don't want to fuck this up

She has been through a lot of relationships in the past few years, and most of them have ended badly, and it has left her disaffected. For a while she was happy this way, but she met a girl who made her smile and laugh, and she hasn't felt that way about anyone in years. And almost every day since they started dating she keeps saying, "I don't want to fuck this up." Over and over. This is one time she won't be happy if it turns out to be a disaster.

She knows a boy who almost never talks, except to his girlfriend. They have been dating for years. He always just smiles when someone talks to him, and laughs a quiet little laugh. But mostly no one tries anymore, and mostly he just listens. Sometimes he interjects something completely unexpected.

He sometimes takes care of the kittens of a girl he knew in college, who lives alone in a studio downtown. She worries that she isn't social enough; after work she just comes home and reads stories on the internet. It makes her feel happy and not alone in a world where everything seems so superficial, to know that there are real people with real stories out there.

She just met a boy who is quiet and introverted but wants to go on adventures, and he likes her a lot and isn't sure how to say it. He thinks she likes him, too, but he is afraid that if he makes a misstep it will all fall apart. Things fall apart on him often enough as it is without his help. And tonight he has had a few too many drinks and he is writing her an email that begins with "I don't want to fuck this up."