He Is looking at me through the smoke, across the fence. He never takes his eyes off me. His hair Is a crown of leaves, of thorns, of flames. His eyes are blazing with light, more light than all the lights in every city in the whole world, more light than we could ever invent If we had ten thousand billion years.
Lauren OliverBut maybe happiness isn't in the choosing. Maybe it's in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along.
Lauren OliverWhat does it feel like to be infected?" "I-- I can't describe it." I force the words out. Can't breathe, can't breathe, can't breathe. His skin smells like smoke from a wood fire, like soap, like heaven. I imagine tasting his skin; I imagine biting his lips. "I want to know." His words are a whisper, barely audible. "I want to know with you.
Lauren OliverI start to back away before I do something wildly inappropriate, like jump on top of him.
Lauren OliverI'd rather die on my own terms than live on theirs. I'd rather die loving Alex than live without him.
Lauren OliverThatโs just the kind of thing that kids do to each other. Itโs no big deal. Thereโs always going to be a person laughing and somebody getting laughed at. It happens every day, in every school, in every town in Americaโprobably in the world, for all I know. The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.
Lauren OliverAll of you, wherever you are: in your spiny cities, or your one-bump towns. Find it, the hard stuff, the links of metal and chink, the fragments of stone filling your stomach. And pull, and pull, and pull. I will make a pact with you: I will do it if you will do it, always and forever. Take down the walls.
Lauren Oliver