They’d already taken her from me once. I didn’t want to lose her again.

I'm starved for different light, a different sun,different sky.

Most people don't want to be saved. Besides, if you keep bailing everybody out, they'll never learn to paddle on their own.

I don't know whether these feelings - this thing growing inside of me - is something horrible and sick or the best thing that's ever happened to me. Either way, I can't stop it. I've lost control. And the truly sick thing is that despite everything, I'm glad.

I think of Grace and feel a sharp pain in my chest.

I'm mesmerized by the way his fingers move confidently along her skin, as though her body is his to reat and touch and tend to. She was mine before she was yours: The words are there, unexpectedly, surging from my throat to my tongue. I swallow them back.

Alex loved books. He was the one who first introduced me to poetry. That's another reason I can't read anymore.