Most things, even the greatest movements on earth, have their beginnings in something small. An earthquake that shatters a city might begin with a tremble, a breath. Music begins with a vibration . . . And God created the whole universe from an atom no bigger than a thought.

Even the greatest movements on earth, have their beginnings with something small.

i feel like a curtain has dropped away and i'm seeing people for who they really are, different, and sharp, and unknowable.

I feel a flash of grief so intense it almost makes me cry out: not for what I lost, but for the chances I missed.

That is what Alex is now: a shadow-boy

The hours here are flat and round, disks of gray layered one on top of the other...they move slowly, at a grind, until it seems as though they are not moving at all. They are just pressing down.

Because if it weren’t for me, Lena and Alex would never have been caught at all. I told on them. I was jealous.