You can't love anyone that way more than once in a lifetime. It's too hard and it hurts too much when it ends. The first boy is always the hardest to get over, Haven. It's just the way the world works.

So you should remember that, when you're thinking about what other people can deal with. Maybe it's not so bad.

Even if you do make tons of new friends,” I told him, “try not to forget where you came from, okay?

I'd been through so much, falling short again and again, and only recently had found a place where who I was, right now, was enough.

My books are so tame!

You didn't fail. You just opted out. There's a difference.

Maybe my sister and I shared more than we thought. We were both waiting and wishing for something we couldn't completely control: I wanted to be alone, and she the total opposite. It was weird, really, to have something so contrary in common. But at least it was something.