I wasn't certain of anything anymore, except that New Orleans was a faithless friend and I wanted to leave her.

I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.

What was life asking of me? How could I respond when I didn't know the question?

He threw his burning cigarette onto our clean living room floor and ground it into the wood with his boot. We were about to become cigarettes.

I wasn't certain of anything anymore, except that New Orleans was a faithless friend and I wanted to leave her.

I shut the bathroom door and caught sight of my face in the mirror. I had no idea how quickly it was to change, to fade. If I had, I would have stared at my reflection, memorizing it. It was the last time I would look into a real mirror for more than a decade.

How did I get here How did I end up in the arms of a boy I barely knew but knew I didn't want to lose I wondered what I would have thought of Andrius in Lithuania. Would I have liked him Would he have liked me