Tibby sat on the outside of a group of kids in the film program. There was a lot of dark clothing and heavy footwear, and quite a few piercings glinting in sunlight. They had invited her to sit with them while they all finished up their lunches before film seminar. Tibby knew that they had invited her largely because she had a ring in her nose. This bugged her almost as much as when people excluded her because she had a ring in her nose.

She wanted him to notice her so much.

He no longer represented someday a possibility. He represented a road not taken a road that suddenly shot so far into the distance she couldn’t see it anymore.

Everyone is fragile. Everything beautiful is fragile

Wear them, they will make you brave.

But then she hadn’t just learned to love this summer – she had also learned how to need.

Can you make yourself love? Can you make yourself loved? -Lena Kaligaris