You didn't fail. You just opted out. There's a difference.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It's so easy in the past tense.

It was like that part of my life, was just gone. It was almost too easy, for something I once thought had meant everything.

You, have this whole tall, dark stranger thing going on. Not to mention the tortured artist bit. And you, have that whole blonde cool and collected perfect smart thing going on. You're the boy all the girls want to rebel with. You, are the unattainable girl in homeroom who never gives a guy the time of day.

I'd been through so much, falling short again and again, and only recently had found a place where who I was, right now, was enough.

We can't expect everybody to be there for us, all at once. So it's a lucky thing that really, all you need is someone.

It was so weird, because usually I was totally nervous talking to guys. But Eli was different. He made me want to say more, not less. Which was maybe not a good thing.