The saddest day in the world will be the one when she stops pretending.

You didn't get past something like that, you go through it -- and for that reason alone, I understood more about her than she ever would have guessed.

Once the world was pulled out from beneath your feet, did you ever get to stand on firm ground again?

What makes you walk past thirty-thousand people without a second glance, and then you look at the thirty-thousandth-and-first person and know you'll never take your eyes off her again?

A heroin-thin boy with enough rings in his eyebrows to resemble a shower curtain rod.

History could hover, like a faint perfume or a memory stamped on the back of one's eyelids.

No," he said calmly, filled with purpose. he took her arms lightly in his hands and shook her. "I am not giving you up." Emily looked at him, and for just a moment he could read her thoughts. Melanie use to say they were like twins, with their own secret, silent language. in that instant, Chris felt her fear and her resignation, and the knotty pain of coming up against a brick wall again and again. She glanced away, and he could breathe again. "The thing is, Chris" Emily said, "it's not your choice.