My chest feels full of glitter and helium, the way it used to when I was little and riding my father's shoulders at twilight, when I knew that if I held up my hands and spread my fingers like a net, I could catch the coming stars.

I wish I could tell him I understand: the higher you raise your hopes, the farther you have to fall.

A girl who is thirteen-which is hard, and difficult, and beautiful, and painful, and exhilarating.

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

you're not a bad person because you want to be yourself.

I told myself that if I didn't care, this wouldn't have hurt so much - surely that proved I was alive and human and all those touchy-feely things, for once and for all. But that wasn't a relief, not when I felt like a skyscraper with dynamite on every floor.

My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn't a social construct but an instinct.