Maybe" she said. "I just wish we'd have a little mishap.It would be reassuring

And trying to break it down this way, to minor and major offenses, maybes and what-ifs, was like arguing over the origin of cracks in a broken egg. It was done. How it happened didn't matter anymore.

You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.

It's okay to accept things from people. It doesn't make you weak or helpless.

It's harder that in looks," I told him when I finally got back in the car. "Most things are.

But she wouldn't. I knew that already. My mother and I had an understanding: we worked together to be as much in control of our shared world as possible. I was suposed to be her other half, carrying my share of the weight. In the last few weeks, I'd tried to shed it, and doing so sent everything off kilter. So of course she would pull me tighter, keeping me in my place, because doing so meant she would always be sure, somehow, of her own.

Now I felt like I was drifting, sucked down by an undertow, and too far out to swim back to the shore.