I wondered if it was really because he cared about me, or if now I was just another challenge.

And for one second, it was like I could feel the timing clicking together, finally pieces falling into place.

Like a blinking cursor on an empty page, it was just the first thing. The beginning of the beginning. But at least it was done.

Everything looks different when you're older, not staring up at the world but down upon it.

I sat up, sliding them off, and the quiet around me did not, for once, seem empty and vast. Instead, for the first time in a while, it felt like it already was full.

What you need, what you deserve, is a guy who adores you for what you are. Who doesn't see you as a project, but a prize. you know?

If you were dead," Owen told her, "you'd have bigger problems than what you were wearing.