I needed to touch her, like I needed to breathe.

She didn't say a work, and I gave up trying, because you couldn't hear either one of us over the shattering noise of hearts breaking and the looming shadow of the last word, the one we refused to say.

the whole way down, I was only thinking one thing . . . L E N A

No, books. She would have maybe twenty going at a time, lying all over our house--on the kitchen table, by her bed, the bathroom, our car, her bags, a little stack at the edge of each stair. And she'd use anything she could find for a bookmark. My missing sock, an apple core, her reading glasses, another book, a fork.

You climbed into my window in the middle of the night. So, either you're some kind of Vampire or some kind of Perv. Which is it?

If a girl says not to get her a birthday present that means get me a birthday present and make sure it's jewelry.

There are lots of things we choose not to see. Doesn't mean they aren't there, even if we wish they weren't.