It was so easy to disown what you couldn't recognize, to keep yourself apart from things that were foreign and unsettling. The only person you can be sure to control, always, is yourself. Which is a lot to be sure of, but at the same time, not enough.

Nothing like being scolded by a hippie.

It is kind of hard to hold a lot in. But for me… it’s sometimes even harder to let it out.

I sat up, sliding them off, and the quiet around me did not, for once, seem empty and vast. Instead, for the first time in a while, it felt like it already was full.

So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that looked like a whole.

Are you crazy? Flirting with Eli Stock in front of Belissa Norwood, in Belissa Norwood’s house, while eating Belissa Norwood’s cupcakes?

The first boy was always the hardest.