But it was too early to know: there were always more pages to go, more words to be written, before the story was over.

Silence is so freaking loud

You didn't have to take a punch for me, you know,' he said. 'I'm a lover, not a fighter.' 'You're a freak is what you are,' I said. He stuck out his hand. 'Come on, slugger. Walk with me. You know you want to.' And the thing was, despite everything I knew-that it was a mistake, that he was different from the others-I did. How he knew that, I had no idea. But I got up and did it anyway.

Sitting there with them, it was almost hard to remember when I first came to Perkins, so determined to remember to be a one-woman operation to the end. But that was the thing about taking help and giving it, or so I was learning; there was no such thing as really getting even. Instead, this connection, once opened, remained ongoing over time.

Sometimes really, really bad things happen to people, and there is no explanation and no reason whatsoever.

It hadn't even occured to me that somebody would believe mine.

Sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.