It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup. It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different.

I love you. They can't take it away.

My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion.

That's the thing about best friends. That's what they do. They keep you from spinning off the edge.

There is only what you want and what happens. There is only grabbing on and holding tight in the darkness.

My heart shoots into my throat every time I think I see his loping walk, or catch sight of some floppy brown hair on a boy - but it's never him, and each time it isn't, my heart does a reverse trajectory down into the very pit of my stomach.

Hearts are fragile things. That's why you have to be so careful.