Look at me. We aren´t them lauren. You´re not your mother or father any more than I´m my mother. You´re you and I´m me and I love you.

Things... well, things suck sometimes. And sometimes you can fix it. And sometimes you can't. It's just the way it is.

Three life lessons: 1.No one will see you. 2.No one will say anything. 3.No one will save you.

My name is Danielle. I'm eighteen. I've been stealing things for as long as I can remember

..."Are you okay?" he says, still looking at me, and I feel my smile slip, fade, and the silence that falls over us then is so total I can’t hear anything, not the rush-hiss of my heart pounding in my chest, not the sounds all around us; insects, wind, and the distant clatter of others’ lives in houses built close but not too close because when we look out our windows we all like to pretend that everything we see is ours. But Ryan is not mine.

I didn't feel anything watching him go. I didn't even wish I did.

I deserved the shaking and the headaches and the fact that every single time I took a breath I felt a squeezing in my chest, my heart beating even though I wished it wasn't.