I hate that everyone calls it growing up, but it seems like DYING.

Allow me to explain how my whole life has prepared me for this moment. I am used to girls screaming, and your screams – will be sweeter than another’s cries of love.

A girl like that, Grandad said, perfumes herself with ozone and metal filings.

I have no memory of climbing the stairs up to the roof. I don't even know how to get where I am, which is a problem since I'm going to have to get down, ideally in a way that doesn't involve dying.

I can learn to live with guilt. I don't care about being good.

You in trouble?” Sam asks. The way he says it, I wonder if he’s thinking about how to get out of here if I am.

She was the epic crush of my childhood. She was the tragedy that made me look inside myself and see my corrupt heart. She was my sin and my salvation, come back from the grave to change me forever. Again. Back then, when she sat on my bed and told me she loved me, I wanted her as much as I have ever wanted anything.