Our eyes met across the crowded room, like in the movies, except we didn't share a knowing smile and race into each other's arms. Instead I fell into the trash can.

She responds by kissing me harder and longer and deeper. She loves me too. She's just afraid.

Your failures and your faults, they stick with you. They glob into ugly, cancerous growths inside you and make you want to die.

But you'd sell your soul for it, wouldn't you? For one day of feeling beautiful.

Secrets. I can't take then with me. If I do, when I go, when I arrive at my final destination, I'll be . . . impure.

Who will see you through the darkness? "Me," I key in the answer. "I'll find my own way.

...When I asked [my dad why the sky was blue] he said it was because God's a boy. If God were a girl, the sky would be pink. 'What about sunrise and sunset?' I'd asked. Dad had looked dumbfounded. 'You kids. You think too much.' It frightened me how shallow the gene pool was that Liam and I were wading in.