Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain—Maddy glanced at Tally—and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.

God, you mean I lost my virginity to the apocalypse?" Morgan sighed again. "The whole thing was really embarrassing; my parents sent me to Brooklyn when they found out." She shrugged. "I thought I’d be safe in a gay bar, okay? What were you doing in there anyway?" Lace looked at me sidelong. "You were where?" I took a sip of beer, swallowed it. "I, uh, hadn’t been in the city...very long. I didn’t know.

That's how things were out here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.

You'd think that in a fight, NOT MOVING would be a bad habit!

It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.

It's just the way things are." she shrugged. "It's no one's fault." "Or everyone's.

To everyone who loves a long-secret romance, revealed at last.