You can lose yourself in repetition—quiet your thoughts; I learned the value of this at a very young age.

I am so happy. I am so impossibly happy.

When she needed help most, she was abandoned.

He never once tells me what Tiffany thinks or what is going on in her heart: the awful feelings, the conflicting impulses, the needs, the desperation, everything that makes her different from Ronnie and Veronica, who have each other and their daughter, Emily, and a good income and a house and everything else that keeps people from calling them "odd.

I'm trying to let him know what I'm about to do. I'm hoping he can save me, even though I realize he can't.

My other friends are in music relaxation class, which I do not attend, because smooth jazz makes me angry sometimes.

Also, I sort of let my appearance go, to the point where I was maybe ten to seventy pounds overweight.