Her hands quieted. "Yeah. Because even if the law says that no one is responsible for anyone else, helping someone who needs it is the right thing to do." I sat down beside her, close enough that the skin of her arm hummed right next to mine. "You really believe that?" She looked down at her lap "Yeah." Then how," I asked, "can you walk away from me?

You’ll tell yourself anything you have to, to pretend that you’re still the one in control.

You can widen the feet of a compass, but they are still attached at the top; you can spin them away from each other, but you always wind up where you started.

You can stay up all night and still not count all the ways to lose the people you love.

Lately, I have been having nightmares, where I'm cut into so many pieces that there isn't enough of me to be put back together.

I could think whatever I wanted to, but realized that any promises I made myself were destined to be broken.

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn; color your hair; watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five. In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world; or you can just jump off it.