Total commitment. You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?

I'd chosen instead to just change my route, go miles out of the way, as if avoiding it would make it go away once and for all.

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

So finally, I decided that the best response — the safest — was none at all.

I think readers are just looking for things that maybe they recognize or can relate to in the books.

I was just stock in the middle, vague and undefined.

After all with me & Marshall, it had never been about words or conversation, where there was too much to be risked or lost. Here, though, in the quiet pressed against each other, this felt familiar to me. And it was nice to let someone get close again, even if it was just for a little while.