I'm glad you were both here," I finally manage, thinking how strange it is to be standing with the two people who made you, something most kids take for granted every day of their lives.

Surely he knows we are all watching. That I am watching. It is always that way when you are in a group and someone decides to go for a swim or walk to the water. The ocean is a giant stage. It is natural that the others watch, if only for a moment.

My relationship with my sister is so central to my life. She's my closest friend, my biggest supporter, and I know she would say the same about me.

Don't you wish we could pick the people we love?" "Yeah," I say. "Or just make the people we love want the same things we want.

Things certainly aren't the way you imagine them when you're a kid and dreaming big dreams about what your life as a grown-up will look like.

It was the same night I gave myself to him completely, knowing that I would belong to him for as long as he wanted to keep me. And, as it turned out, even longer than that.

When I meet someone I like being with more than I like being alone, I'll marry her.