Grace. I held on to that name. If I kept that in my head, I would be OK. Grace. I was shaking, shaking; my skin peeling away. Grace. My bones squeezed, pinched, pressed against my muscles. Grace. Her eyes held me even after I stopped feeling her fingers gripping my arms. Sam," she said. "Don't go.

Isabel had gone silent in a way that shouted the silence to me.

Life's pain. You just have to get over as much of it as you can. -Isabel Culpeper

He asked for a specific. I gave him a specific. I'm sorry it wasn't puppies.

Really, Rachel looked like a sun, bright and exuding energy, holding us two moons in a parallel orbit by the sheer force of her will.

Of course he was a part of what I hated about myself. Everything was a part of what I hated about myself. It wasn't really personal.

I wasn’t sure what expression I was expecting her to wear when she saw that it was me. I’d braced myself for disgust or anger. But she just looked at me like I was — nothing. An annoyance, maybe.