Fine...a word that you said when someone asked how you were but didn't really care to know the truth.

As for me, I was just trying to get it right, whatever that means. But now I finally felt I was on my way. Everyone had a forever, but given a choice, this would be mine. The one that began in this moment, with Wes, in a kiss that took my breath away, then gave it back - leaving meastounded, amazed and most of all, alive.

I trailed off and he didn't push me to finish. I was finding that I liked that.

Clearly, sharing something could take you a long way, or at least to a different place than you'd planned. Like a friendship or a family, or even jsut alone on a curb on a Saturday, trying to get your bearings as best you can.

Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all applauded.

That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it's reconciled, accepted, someone points it out to you, and it just hits you all over again, that shocking.

The choices you make now, the people you surround yourself with, they all have the potential to affect your life, even who you are, forever.