Because that day with Willem, I may have pretended to be someone named Lulu, but I had never been more honest in my life. Maybe that's the thing with liberation. It comes at a price.

That’s the thing you never expect about grieving, what a competition it is.

Okay, maybe this was the meant to be: the universe I knew, loved nothing more than balance.

She's still beautiful. Not in an obvious Vanessa LeGrande or Byrn Shraeder kind of way. In a quiet way that's always been devastating to me.

In that twisted incestuous way of fate, Mia's a part of our history, and we're among the shards of her legacy.

Except even at the start, when we were in that can't-get-enough-of-you-phase, there was like some invisible wall between us. At first I tried to take it down, but it took so much effort to even make cracks. And then I got tired of trying. Then I justified it. This was just how adult relationships were, how love felt once you had a few battle scars.

Traveling isn't something you're good at. It's something you do. Like breathing.