But in the real world, you couldnt really just split a family down the middle, mom on one side, dad the other, with the child equally divided between. It was like when you ripped a piece of paper into two: no matter how you tried, the seams never fit exactly right again. It was what you couldn't see, those tiniest of pieces, that were lost in the severing, and their absence kept everything from being complete.
Sarah DessenThis is the problem with dealing with someone who is actually a good listener. They donโt jump in on your sentences, saving you from actually finishing them, or talk over you, allowing what you do manage to get out to be lost or altered in transit. Instead, they wait, so you have to keep going.
Sarah DessenSo many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn't even budge.
Sarah DessenNow I felt like I was drifting, sucked down by an undertow, and too far out to swim back to the shore.
Sarah DessenI spent a lot of time looking at that picture. Wondering what Iโd think of that girl, if I was someone else, seeing how easily she sits in her boyfriendโs lap, laughing, with his arms around her. I would have thought her life was perfect, the way I once thought Cassโs was. It was too easy, I was learning, to just assume things.
Sarah Dessen