I will play out the string. I will not betray your trust. I will find you.

Television is a passivity.

I worked hard to meet his eyes, even though they were the kind of pretty that's hard to look at.

Just spend a few more months playing video games. That hand-eye coordination will come in handy when you get to third base.

You're awfully philosophical for a girl that just got busted.

People will say it's sad that she leaves a lesser scar, that fewer remember her, that she was loved deeply but not widely. But it's not sad, Van Houten. It's triumphant. It's heroic. Isn't that the real heroism? Like the doctors say: First, do no harm.

And as paralyzing and upsetting as all the never agains were, the final leaving felt perfect. Pure. The most distilled possible form of liberation. Everything that mattered except one lousy picture was in the trash, but it felt so great. I started jogging, wanting to put even more distance between myself and school. It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.