Her life was monotonous, but it kept her out of trouble. . . . This, her father would say, was called being an adult.

I should let people in. If they leave, they leave. If I break, I break. It happens to everyone. Right?

When you have to do something, you have to do it. Putting it off only makes it worse. Believe me, I know.

Your peers when you're a teenager will always be the keepers of your embarrassment and regret. It was one of life's great injustices, that you can move on and be accomplished and happy, but the moment you see someone from high school you immediately become the person you were then, not the person you are now.

To Fred, those years seemed to pass like quickly skimming a book and then finding the ending wasn't what he expected. He wished he'd paid more attention to the story.

It was like the way you wanted sunshine on Saturdays, or pancakes for breakfast. They just made you feel good.

Fate never promises to tell you everything up front. You aren't always shown the path in life you're supposed to take. But if there was one thing she'd learned in the past few weeks, it was that sometimes, when you're really lucky, you meet someone with a map.