Warily, she dares to allow me a smile. "It's okay. It's just...I'm not too good at talking to people." She looks away again as her shyness smothers her. "So, do you think it'd be all right if we don't talk?

They'd been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.

She was like a lone angel floating above the surface of the earth, laughing with delight because she could fly but crying out of loneliness.

Mistakes, mistakes, it's all I seem capable of at times.

Around us I can sniff out a savagery in the noisy southern air. It knifes it's way into my nose, but I do not bleed blood. It's fear I bleed, and it gushes out over my lip. I wipe it away, in a hurry.

...to swear with a ferocity that can only be described as a talent.

You can't eat books, sweetheart.