He could either be who everyone wanted him to be – and be miserable – or he could just ignore people who hated him, be himself, and be happy.
If a fight looks like a lot of fun, you should be suspicious. ‘If you ain’t scared of standing up for what’s right, you ain’t standing up for much.
I didn’t come up with the lie. It wasn’t mine. They handed the lie to me, and I tried like hell to make it work for a while.
I mean, I really liked him to the point where being around him was sort of wonderful and painful all at the same time, you know?
Please your mother: just lie around upstairs and smoke some pot. Be a revolutionary.
I could feel his hand on my waist, his arms around me, feel the rise and fall of his chest next to mine as I held my breath, and wished the sun would drop out of the sky.
I’m good. I mean, I want to die, but I’m good.
She kissed me on the cheek, and my mom sang Theresa’s name from the open front door. She loves Theresa. I think she loves me more when I’m with her.
I’m still not totally sure I know what’s true about me.
If we held grudges for all the idiotic things we said and did as freshman and sophomores, the hallways would be silent.
I’ve always wanted to wake up one day in a world where I liked the right people, and they lied me in return. I worry it’ll never happen.
I was thirteen. She wanted me to play a team sport. I would have none of it. ‘I’m gay’ was number four on my list of ten reasons it was a bad idea.” “You just slipped it in there, huh? Smooth.” “Right between ‘I’m allergic to Gatorade’ and ‘The other boys smell like sneakers.
I do like the way people behave toward me and Theresa when we’re together-everyone’s voice changes to music, and we get all sorts of smiles.
It was duck apocalypse!
You know,” I said, “I think the thing that scared me most about admitting that I’m, you know, gay or whatever isn’t so much that people would taunt me by saying ‘Oh, James likes other boys,’ but that they would say stuff like, ‘Oh, turns out James isn’t a boy after all.’ You know?