I really was alone, and the only thing worse than being alone was having everyone else see how lonely you were

South of Somewhere and north of Nowhere.

We are given to the great, for great purpose, to great ends. We are given to the grave, for grave purposes, to grave ends.

It's crazy what you see if you aren't really looking.

Even in the slippery blur of heat and arms and noise, Lena affected everything in her wake, a pull as powerful as the moon to the tides, or the planets to the sun. I was caught in her orbit, even as she pulled away from mine.

It almost felt like she was sucking it all out of me, like she sucked on that sticky red lollipop, the one she kept licking as she drove.

The stuffs you're good at and the stuffs you're bad at are just different parts of the same thing. Same goes for people you love and the people you don't. And the people who love you and the people who don't. The only thing that mattered was that you cared about a few people.