It took me a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints and forty minutes to get over that boy.

The Colonel's hand was so little, and I grabbed it tight, his cold seeping into me and my warmth into him. 'I memorized the populations,' he said.

Nothing really mattered that much, not the good things and not the bad ones. We were in the business of mutual amusement, and we were reasonably prosperous.

And yes, again, that was it exactly. A retyper and not a writer. A prodigy and not a genius.

And people are moody, dude. You gotta get used to living with people.

You are helpful, and you are loved, and you are forgiven, and you are not alone.

I think about how much depends upon a best friend. Then you wake up in the morning you swing your legs out of bed and you put your feet on the ground and you stand up. You don't scoot to the edge of the bed and look down to make sure the floor is there. The floor is always there. Until it's not.