I was heading off to my new world. But I was taking a part of my past, and the future, along with me for the ride.

Everyone laughed, and just like that, the conversation shifted, jumping to another topic. It was fast and furious, the talking, the emotions, the back-and-forth and forth-and-back. I realized that if I tried to focus on it too much, I got overwhelmed. So I just decided to relax into it, bumpy and crazy as it might be, and try for once to just go along for the ride.

So this had been all I wanted, a boy who understood how I felt. Now, though, I sometimes wished for more.

When someone starts to change, and it’s obvious, it's sort of natural to wonder why. Right?

It's a choice, Annabel. And if you make the wrong one, you have only yourself to blame when there are consequences.

After all, it's all kinds of things that make up a life, right? The big, like falling in love and spending time with your family, and the little....like blow drying your hair, applying concealer, and cursing those magazine inserts. It all counts. It has to.

I write thank-you notes the minute I throw the wrapping paper away.