Like the teens I worked with, I understood the need for miracles--they kept reality from paralyzing you

The scariest thing in the world is thinking someone you love is going to die.

Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same fault lines.

It never failed to amaze me how the most ordinary day could be catapulted into the extraordinary in the blink of an eye.

Nathaniel closes his eyes and jumps, his arms glued to his sides like that fly's. He doesn't try to break his fall, just hits hard, because it hurts less than everything else.

The woman who opens the door has a blue stain on her shirt and dark hair wound into a messy knot and the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. They're pale, like a lioness's, nearly golden, but they also look like they've done their fair share of crying, and we all know that a sky with clouds in it is much more interesting than one that doesn't have any.

I drew it over my skin like a violins bow, No one would ever hear the song of my shame.