There was something incongruous about one marriage ending the same day another began, as if there was an exchange program in the universe or something, a trade required in order to keep the numbers even.
Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour, could make all the difference. So much hanging on just these things, tiny increments that together build a life.
The important thing to remember,... is that you are a human being and worthy of respect.
I knew from experience that no matter how much you turn things in your head, trying to make sense of them, some people just defy all logic.
I still felt unformed, like a cake half baked with edges crisp, but still mushy in the middle.
Most people think a girl and a guy can’t just be friends, there has to be something else going on.
With shame, like horseshoes, proximity counts.
As I crossed the lobby to the boardwalk, all I could think was that regardless of the performance I’d just witnessed, it didn’t make you noble to step away from something that wasn’t working, even if you thought you were the reason for the malfunction. Especially then. It just made you a quitter. Because if you were the problem, chances were you could also be the solution. The only way to find out was to take another shot.
Caitlin?′ Cass said, and I turned away from the window, looking down the stairs and out the front door, trying to picture her making that walk away from this. It seemed like so far, and I was so tired. Tired of keeping time, of studying faces, of hiding bruises. Of disappearing, bit by bit, while my world just kept going without me, even as I slipped farther beneath the water, drowning.
Lost means forever, it’s gone. But misplaced... that means it’s still around, somewhere.
Jennifer Anne had prepared some complicated-looking recipe involving chicken breasts stuffed with sweet potatoes topped with a vegetable glaze. They looked perfect, but it was the kind of dish where you just knew someone had to have been pawing at your food for a long while to get it just right, their fingers all in what now you were having to stick in your mouth.
Like maybe it’s forever, maybe it’s not.
The choice of no choice.
All anyone really wants from another person is their attention. It’s so easy to give and counts for so much.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her actually relax and sit still in a way that made it obvious she wasn’t already thinking about the next six things she had to do, and maybe the six after that.
I sat quiet, silent, angry, refusing to grieve, because it seemed like to do so would be giving everyone what the wanted.
Emergencies shouldn’t feel the same, with similar colors and noises, when each one is so unique, all its own.
You can’t measure love by the time put in, but by the weight of those moments.
The big moments with Ethan weren’t, well, big. Instead, it was these tiny increments and gestures that I clung to in order to hold on to him.
Tic Tacs you actually swallow, though,” Esther pointed out. “You own a Tic Tac. Gum is just borrowed.