Sometimes you weren't supposed to share pain. Sometimes it was best just to deal with it alone.

Love always hurts. That’s one thing I know you know. But it’s worth it. That’s what you don’t know. Yet.

He didn't think he belonged here, so she was making him face some uncomfortable facts. People adapt. People change. You can grow where you're planted.

She'd assumed she'd be married and have kids by this age, that she would be grooming her own daughter for this, as her friends were doing. She wanted it so much she would dream about it sometimes, and then she would wake up with the skin at her wrists and neck red from the scratchy lace of the wedding gown she'd dreamed of wearing. But she'd never felt anything for the men she'd dated, nothing beyond her own desperation. And her desire to marry wasn't strong enough, would never be strong enough, to allow her to marry a man she didn't love.

Misfits need a place to get away, too. All that trying to fit in is exhausting.

He might be tall enough to see into tomorrow, but he hadn’t looked there in a long, long time. He’d forgotten how bright it was. So bright he could hardly stand it.

The next morning dawned bright and sweet, like ribbon candy.