With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. Freedom is exhausting.

I used to think that's what love was: knowing someone so well he was like a part of you.

We stand there for a moment, looking at each other, and in that instant I feel our connection so strongly it's as though it achieves physical existence, becomes a hand all around us, cupping us together, protecting us. This is what people are always talking about when they talk about god: this feeling, of being held and understood and protected. feeling this way seems about as close to saying a prayer as you could get.

I hate skin; I hate bones and bodies. I want to curl up inside of him and be carried there forever.

That's the thing: We didn't really care. A world without love is also a world without stakes.

This is what I want. This is the only thing I've ever wanted. Everything else—every single second of every single day that has come before this very moment, this kiss—has meant nothing.

Why couldn't you let me have it? Why did you have to take it? Why did you always take everything?