This was our common ground, the secret we shared but never spoke aloud.

Leaving was easy. It was everything else that was so damned hard.

So much had happened that morning. Yet it was this image, this moment, that i kept going back to hours later, after we'd made it safely to the walkway and gone our separate ways to classes. How it felt to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if i fell, at least i wouldn't do it alone.

Lissa lowered her voice and added, "I might not even go to school anyway. I might defer and join the Peace Corps and go to Africa and shave my head and dig latrines." "Shave your head?" I said, because, really, this was the most ludicrous part of the whole thing. "You? Do you have any idea how ugly most people's bare heads are? They've got all kinds of bumps, Lissa. And you won't know until it's too late and you're flat-out bald.

That was the thing about being on the inside: the world was just going on, even when it seemed like time for you had stopped for good.

You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those songs.

But all I could think of was how when nothing made sense and hadn't for ages, you just have to grab onto anything you feel sure of.