Living down your own past was hard enough. You shouldn't have to live down someone else's.

First frost meant letting go, so it was always reason to celebrate.

People fall in love all the time. And it's not always with the right people. And it's not always reciprocated.

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

...she was still water in his hands. He didn't know how to hold on.

When you're a teenager, your friends are your life. When you grow up, friendships seem to get pushed further and further back, until it seems like a luxury, a frivolity, like a bubble bath.

Blank-slate friendships were thin and temperamental. She knew that. There was no history there to cement people together, for better or worse.