And it feels strange, almost sad, to walk through ther empty halls. Each step I take sounds so lonely.

The young adult literature is relatively new - it just kind of exploded in the 2000s. When I grew up, there weren't bookstores with sections dedicated to teen lit, nor was my generation raised reading books written specifically for us. Because of that, today we still think of books for teens as children's books and so when you write a book that includes sensitive topics, it just seems even more controversial. What's troubling to me about that is these are issues adults know that teens deal with. Not writing about them makes them something we don't, or can't talk about.

And at some point, the struggle becomes too much-too tiring-and you consider letting go. Allowing tragedy... or whatever... to happen.

It's up to the reader to decipher the code, or the words, based on everything they know about life and emotions.

Because I've heard so many stories that I don't know which one is the most popular. But I do know which is the least popular. The truth.

I swear, guys in groups are capable of the stupidest things." "Like war," Kellan says, heaping napkins and ketchup packets onto her tray. "And jumping off rooftops." "And lighting their farts on fire," she says.

Rejection always hurts, but having it come from my best friend was the worst.