Doing the right thing for someone else occasionally means doing something that feels wrong to you.

A place like this wears down everything, and tolerance is no exception. In here, coexistence passes for forgiveness. You do not learn to like something you abhor; you come to live with it...You live and let live, and eventually that becomes enough.

The damage was permanent; there would always be scars. But even the angriest scars faded over time until it was difficult to see them written on the skin at all, and the only thing that remained was the memory of how painful it had been.

Like a missing tooth, sometimes an absence is more noticeable than a presence.

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

I’m gonna miss you,” Brianna says. “I’m gonna miss you too, baby,” Angelo murmurs. For Pete’s sake. It’s not like she’s leaving on a trip around the world. She’s only headed to homeroom.

But then again, maybe bad things happen because it’s the only way we can keep remembering what good is supposed to look like.