I reached up with my finger and traced the scar over my eyebrow, remembering when that was the greatest hurt I'd ever known.

Maybe I'd just figured out there were some things you were better off not knowing

All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.

Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour, could make all the difference. So much hanging on just these things, tiny increments that together build a life. Like words build a story, and what had Ted said? One word can change the entire world.

People don't change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less

Maybe, you just misplaced it, you know? It's been there. But you just haven't been looking in the right spot. Because lost means forever, it's gone. But misplaced... that means it's still around, somewhere. Just not where you thought.

In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible.