It’s not my fault I can’t be like you, okay? I don’t get up in the morning thinking the world is one big, shiny, happy place, okay? That’s just not how I work. I don’t think I can be fixed.
This is what happens when you try to help people. You get screwed.
How is it possible, I think, to change so much and not be able to change anything at all?
You see, we didn’t know.
And now I know why they invented words for love, why they had to: It’s the only thing that can come close to describing what I feel in that moment, the baffling mixture of pain and pleasure and fear and joy, all running sharply through me at once.
Snapshots, moments, mere seconds: as fragile and beautiful and hopeless as a single butterfly, flapping on against a gathering wind.
I wonder whether she was sorry for leaving us behind.
But it does not tell you this: that love will turn the whole world into something greater than itself.
It occurs to me that for a long time she has been doing her own version of resisting.
It’s like a razor blade edging its way through my organs, shredding me, all I can think is: It will kill me, it will kill me, it will kill me. And I don’t care.
Happiness is found when no one is looking.
That’s the thing about best friends. That’s what they do. They keep you from spinning off the edge.
He’s speaking in the tone of voice that everyone uses when they’re about to break you apart. Gentle – kind, even – like they can make the news sound better just by speaking in a lullaby voice.
I’ve always hated being looked at.
It’s funny how you can know your friends so well, but you still end up playing the same games with them.
Mice? Fine. Flying mice? Not so fine.
Old words; words that nearly brought me to my knees. Live free or die.
The only thing worse than having no friends is being pitied for having no friends.
If you take, we will take back. Steal from us, and we will rob you blind. When you squeeze, we will hit. This is the way the world is made now.
It’s like there’s a filter set up in my brain, except instead of making things better, it twists everything around so what comes out of my mouth is totally wrong, totally different from what I was thinking.