For a moment, my heart aches for him. I should never have asked him to join me here; I should never have asked him to cross.

It's Connecticut: being like the people around you is the whole point.

This is the world we live in, a world of safety and happiness and order, a world without love. A world where children crack their heads on stone fireplaces and nearly gnaw off their tongues and the parents are concerned. Not heartbroken, frantic, desperate. Concerned, as they are when you fail mathematics, as they are when they are late to pay their taxes.

Live free or die.

I’m with Julian,” I say at last. This, after all, is what I have chosen.

That's the thing about faith. It works.

amazingly, i'd actually forgotten that i'm supposed to be plain. i'm so used to alex telling me i'm beautiful. i'm so used to feeling beautiful around him. a hollow opens up in my chest. this is what life will be like without him: everything will become ordinary again. i'll become ordinary again.