Good Lord, I thought, squinting at the bright glare of a late-July morning. No wonder I slept through this. It was noisy with shrieking birds, and already hot.
If you’re somewhere new every day, you feel no accountability. You don’t care who you hurt. You do what you want and damn the rest because you won’t be there for the fallout.
With all the conveniences and clean simplicity we lived in, people had lost a lot of polish.
I can guarantee it, ” Jenks said as their eyes met. The second that you see her, you will fall in love. You will do anything for her, anything at all, and she will know it and love you back. That’s all kids want to know – that you love them.
Without warning he had become witness to something that stretched back through the eons, ties both elastic and enduring, surpassing death, surpassing life. She was his child. It was as simple as that and that complex.
Three g’s, and an r: Get in, get the info, get out, relocate.
I hate it when people use stuff and don’t replace.
It hurts,” he whispered, his hands falling to his sides. “All the time. Even when I try.” Tears warmed my eyes, and I pulled back so I could look at him. “It will stop one day,” I said as I gave his shoulders a squeeze. “Even without your trying, and then you’ll feel guilty. After that, you’ll wake up one morning, remember her, and smile.
Because for all the changes, some things were immutable truths: friendship transcends all barriers, understanding trumps fear, and great power can always be surmounted by determination. And with Trent, Al, Ivy, and Jenks beside me, we had all three. I always had.
Size 8 women’s, and a men’s 10.
Setting my spiced cider down, I put my elbows on my knees and sighed. I loved the solstice, and not just for the food and parties. Cincinnati dropped all of its lights from midnight until sunrise, and it was the only time I ever saw the night sky as it was supposed to be. Anyone thieving during the blackout was dealt with hard, curtailing any problems.
You eliminate everything, and whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the answer.
The ever-after is like a drop of time that got knocked out, sitting alone by itself with no past behind it to push it forward and no future to pull it along. It’s hanging to us by the ley lines, sort of. Your circles aren’t made up of differing realities, they’re made up of the stretchy stuff that’s holding us and the ever-after together, keeping the ever-after from vanishing like it should.
How do you deal with it? How do you keep from falling apart? That – What happened to them is horrible. How can a person do that to another?” Rose took a slow breath. “You cry, you get angry, then you do something about it.” I watched her leave, the clack of her quick heels sounding sharp before the door closed. Yeah. I can do that.
The only thing between your head and my foot becoming real close and personal right now is my questionable professionalism.
Happy endings were never handed out. You had to fight for them, earn them with bruised hearts and sacrifices. And I just couldn’t do it right now. It hurt too much when it fell apart.
I popped open the hard case and carefully put the so-ugly-they-could-work-as-birth-control glasses on.
Tears could not be equal, if I wept diamonds from the skies,” Jenks whispered, empty and bereft. “My word silent, though I should howl. Muffled by death, my wings can’t lift me high enough to find you. I feel you within. Unaware of my pain. Not knowing why I mourn.” He lifted his eyes to mine, a glimmer of tears showing. “And why I breathe alone.
Family wasn’t just those you grew up with, but those you grew better with.
Power doesn’t corrupt. Power brings what we are to the top, is all,” I said, thinking of all the ugly I had fought against. “Be it good or bad.
It never ceases to amaze me how someone can possess the world or nothing at all, and still have their happiness hinge on the small moments between them and the ones they love.