Why did you choose to stay here?" (...) "I don't know," he said. "It's as if there's more oxygen here.

[Their love] had burned itself out, like a forgotten candle in an empty room, leaving behind a ravenous discontent.

The scene was set. All that was required was an action, a cold start, instant and brutal as beginnings always are.

Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains

With a little effort, she could get up by herself

Do you really like studying?" Mattia nodded. "Why?" "It's the only thing I know how to do," he said shortly. He wanted to tell her that he liked studying because you can do it alone, because all the things you study are already dead, cold, and chewed over. He wanted to tell her that the pages of the schoolbooks were all the same temperature, that they left you time to choose, that they never hurt you and you couldn't hurt them either. But he said nothing.

Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other.