Nobody ever said life was fair.

It's the time of the night I like best, when most people are asleep and it feels like the world belongs completely to my friends and me, as though nothing exists apart from out little circle: everywhere else is darkness and quiet.

For a second I feel a rush of sadness: for the horizons that vanish behind us, for the people we leave behind, the tiny-doll selves that get stored away and ultimately buried.

At a certain point your brain stops to rationalize things. At a certain point it gives up, shuts off, shuts down.

I remember Lena's expression when he knocked on the door; and how Alex had looked at her when she finally let him into the storeroom. I remember exactly what he was wearing, too, and the mess of his hair, the sneakers with their blue-tinged laces. His right shoe was untied. He didn't notice. He didn't notice anything but Lena.

Everyone you trust, everyone you think you can count on, will eventually disappoint you.

And how she looked at me like I could save her from everything bad in he world. This was my secret: she was the one who saved me