All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below.

Nah," I said. "But if it does, just tell him I said to get back on the bike." "What?" "He'll understand.

She took the sun when it came and the rain the same way.

Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together.

I had this wild thought that he was the only one in all this chaos who was just like me, and that was comforting and profound all at once.

I watched my mother do what she did best, and realized there would never be a way to cut myself from her entirely. No matter how strong or weak I was, she was a part of me, as crucial as my own heart. I would never be strong enough, in all my life, to do without her.

for once, you believed in yourself. you believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world.