That was the thing. You just never knew. Forever was so many different things. It was always changing, it was what really everything was all about. It was 20 minutes, 100 years, or just this instant, or any instant I wished would last and last. But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and it was this: it was happening. Right then as I ran with Wes into that bright sun, and every moment afterwards.
If you don’t pay attention to the past, you’ll never understand the future. It’s all linked together. You see what I’m saying?” At.
I am, of course, a rogue. A rapscallion. A musician. I would bring her nothing but poverty, shame, and bruised shins from my flailing limbs. She is the better for our parting.
Maybe this next time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you would never know.
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.