I went on spouting bullshit Encouragements as Gus's parents, arm in arm, hugged each other and nodded at every word. Funerals, I had decided, are for the living.

The world went on, as it does, without my full participation, and I only woke up from the reverie when someone said my name.

You had been a paper boy to me all these years - two dimensions as a character on the page and two different, but still flat, dimensions as a person. But that night you turned out to be real.

His every syllable flirted. Honestly, he kind of turned me on. I didn't even know that guys could turn me on-not, like, in real life

I'm just reveling in the glory of not having to hear the neediness and impotence of my own voice.

It was psychological trick called empathic listening. You say what the person is feeling so they feel understood.

Why don’t we break up? I guess I stay with her because she stays with me. And that’s not an easy thing to do.