I survive at the edge of friends circles.

You set me up," I say. "One big con. You can't blame me because I turned out not to be gullible enough. You can't blame the mark. That's not how it works. Have some respect for the nature of the game.

One night you will ask me for something I cannot give.

He's the kind of liar who totally forgets what he told you the last time, but he believes every single lie with such conviction that sometimes he can convince you of it.

She suddenly understood why she had let him kiss her in the diner, why she had wanted him at all. She wanted to control him. He was every arrogant boyfriend that had treated her mother badly. He was every boy that told her she was too freaky, who had laughed at her, or just wanted her to shut up and make out. He was a thousand times less real than Roiben.

I thought weirdness was a good thing. I don't mean that defensively, either. I thought it was something to be cultivated.

Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them.