I love you present tense,” I whispered, and then put my hand on the middle of his chest and said, “It’s okay, Gus. It’s okay. It is. It’s okay, you hear me?” I had—and have—absolutely no confidence that he could hear me. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Okay,” I said. “Okay.

Was it animal pee or human pee? Someone asked. How would I know? What, am I an expert in the study of pee?

Tuesday—we had school for the first time. Madame O’Malley had a moment of silence at the beginning of French class, a class that was always punctuated with long moments of silence, and then asked us how we were feeling. “Awful,” a girl said. “En français,” Madame O’Malley replied. “En français.

...I will continue to underscore that I don't think authorial intent is all that important to a reading experience, and I certainly don't think the job of reading is to divine authorial intent.

Your friendship with her-it sleeps with the fishes.

We gotta do something about this frigging swing set,' he said. 'I'm telling you, it's ninety percent of the problem.

It was nice - in the dark and the quiet... and her eyes looking back, like there was something in me worth seeing.