I write about kids growing up, I write a lot about schools and parents, and all of my experiences with those things have been suburban experiences.
Tom PerrottaOnce you'd broken through that invisible barrier that separates one person from another, you were connected forever, whether you liked it or not.
Tom PerrottaMeg was going to have to learn for herself what Laurie had figured out over the summer - that it was better to leave well enough alone, to avoid unnecessary encounters with the people you'd left behind, to not keep poking at that sore tooth with the tip of your tongue. Not because you didn't love them anymore, but because you did, and because that love was useless now, just another dull ache in your phantom limb.
Tom PerrottaTo this day, sheโs still sad. Because thereโs not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it. Iโm just saying that I took the pain that was inside of her at that moment and made it my own. And it didnโt hurt me at all.
Tom Perrotta