But what I wanted back had never really been there. He was a temporary illusion, a mirage of water after walking in the desert. I had made him up. And he could have killed me. You've got to stop the ride sometimes. Stop it and get off.

It made me wonder how many times we forgive just because we don't want to lose someone, even if they don't deserve our forgiveness.

No, Mom. I said fine." "It's just your tone." Ah, yes- the tone. The nasty traitor.

Love can come when you're already who you are, when you're filled with you. Not when you look to someone else to fill the empty space.

The hope was, people like me got to finally find our place in college or in the actual world. People who understood this told you that high school wasn't the actual world, that it was more like a temporary alternate reality you were forced to believe in for four years. A video game you played, where you could never get to the next level no matter how hard you tried.

It was all the things you could never understand and could never possess that made you ache.

I know parental embarrassment usually stops somewhere at fifteen, but he just kept on giving me good reasons.