Losing me will hurt; it will be the kind of pain that won't feel real at first, and when it does, it will take her breath away.

Traveling is not something you are good at. It is something you do. Like breathing.

And now I am here, as alone as I've ever been. I am seventeen years old. This is not how it's suppose to be. This is not how my life is suppose to turn out.

There are like twenty people in that waiting room right now. Some of them are related to you. Some of them are not. But we're all your family.' "She stops now. Leans over me so that the wisps of her hair tickle my face. She kisses me on the forehead. 'You still have a family,' she whispers.

It takes certain kind of naiveté, or perhaps just stupidity, to know things will end and still hope otherwise.

he kissed me hard. "Promise me. Promise me you'll spend New Year's with me next year," he whispered into my ear.

It's nice, this. The canal." He looks at me. "You." "I'll bet you say that to all the canals.