"You asked me to go out with you. I know you probably changed your mind. But you should know, the answer was yes. It's always been yes when it comes to you.""

"The answer . . . he said slowly."

"Yeah, I said, swallowing and looking out my open door, at the ocean. The answer's yes."

"Mclean? he asked. "Is that you?"

"Yes, I said after his hello."

"I dialed the number slowly, wanting to get it right. Two rings, and he picked up."

"It was kind of soothing, these sounds of lives being lived all around me, for better or for worse. And there I was, in the middle of them all, newly reborn and still waiting for mine to begin."

"Like a blinking cursor on an empty page, it was just the first thing. The beginning of the beginning. But at least it was done."

"Despite my dad's assurances I was strangely nervous my stomach tight ever since we'd hung up. Maybe Deb had picked up on this and it was why she'd pretty much talked nonstop since I'd approached her and asked for a ride. I'd barely had time to explain the situation before she had launched into a dozen stories to illustrate the point that Things Happened But People Were Okay in the End."

"I felt tears prick my eyes as I looked down at the model again, looking at that girl and boy on the curb. Forever in that place, together."

"We laughed ourselves silly, taking back our shared past, gently, piece by piece."

"I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell anyone. As long as I didn't say it aloud, it wasn't real."

"She was just a shell of her former self, functioning and talking but hardly alive."

"During this time we've been apart, it's you I've thought of when I'm at my weakest, and you who have pulled me through."

"If there's one thing I've learned in the last few months, it's that sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump."

"See you in dreamland."

"It's funny how someone's perception of you can be formed without you even knowing it."

"In the open sea, he said. Now shut up and eat your Junior Mints."

"Rogerson, I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, where would I find the pelagic zone?"

"Duh, he said, smoothing my hair back, Venus and Earth."

"Sitting in front of my parents' house as he kissed me goodnight: Which two planets are almost identical in size?"

"Energy, he said, handing me my burrito."

"In physics, I sprung on him as we sat in the Taco Bell drive-through, what does the capital letter W stand for?"

"There were moments - when Jeopardy came on, in the car during radio trivia challenges, or for practically any question I couldn't answer in any subject - that Rogerson simply amazed me. I started to seek out facts, just to stump him, but it never worked. He was that sharp."

"Well, it's New Year's now but I don't feel that way anymore. I wonder if you do either. Something's happening to me. It's like I'm shrinking smaller and smaller and I can't stop it. There's just so much wrong that I can't imagine the shame in admitting even the tiniest part of it. When you left it was like there was this huge gap to fill, but instead of spreading wide enough to do it I just fell right in, and I'm still falling. Like I'm half-asleep, and I can't wake up, can't wake up...."

"She can be anything, Boo told me, and this is what I remember most, her freckled face so solemn, as if she knew she was the first to tell me. And so can you."

"Can she be divorced? I asked. And famous for her commercials and ideas?"

"I took his wildness from him and tried to fold it into myself, filling up the empty spaces all those second place finishes left behind."

"It was my mother."

"And that was as far as he got before i heard it. The thumping of footsteps, running up the lawn toward me: It seemed like I could hear it through the grass, like leaning your ear to a railroad track and feeling the train coming, miles away. As the noise got closer I could hear ragged breaths, and then a voice."

"I jammed my hand in my jacket pocket, bracing myself for the next hit, and feel something. Something grainy and small, sticking to the tips of my fingers: the sand from Commons Park."

"She blinked, twice, obviously surprised. Ummm, she said, keeping her eyes on me. I don't know."

"What was the name of Pygmalion's sister?"

"Wake up, Caitlin, Mr. Lensing had said. But what he didn't understand was that this dreamland was preferable, walking through this life half-sleeping, everything at arm's length or farther away. I understood those mermaids. I didn't care if they sang to me.All I wanted was to block out all the human voices as they called me name again and again, pulling me upward into light,to drown."

"I had this wild thought that he was the only one in all this chaos who was just like me, and that was comforting and profound all at once."

"It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself."

"And she was good to me: strong, fun, and fiercely loyal. And if I didn't have many other friends because of her-most girls were intimidated by her looks, or thought she was too pushy, or just flat-out feared for their boyfriends-it never bothered me. I never missed having a wide, thick circle of girlfriends: Rina was more than enough. We were comfortable with each other's flaws and weaknesses, so we stuck together and kept to ourselves."

"Caitlin, she'd say, her voice dark and serious. I can't hand you the toothpaste. But I CAN help you hand the toothpaste to yourself."

"Hey Cass, I'd say, hand me that toothpaste."

"I'd heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran on TV, featuring some dragged-out woman with a limp perm and big, painted-on circles under her eyes, downing vodka and sobbing uncontrollably. We can't heal you at Evergreen, the very somber voiceover said. But we can help you to heal yourself. It had become our own running joke, applicable to almost anything."

"After everything that happened, how could I miss him? But I did, I did."

"Behind the camera, I was invisible. When I lifted it up to my eye it was like I crawled into the lens, losing myself there. and everything else fell away."

"I wondered if he ever thought of me, and hated the pang I felt when I told myself he didn't."

"I was worn out, broken: He had taken almost everything. But he'd been all I'd had, all this time. And when the police led him away, I pulled out of the hands of all these loved one, sobbing, screaming, everything hurting, to try and make him stay."

"It's important." I could hear him moving around, adjusting things, before he came to sit beside me. "Okay," he said. "Take a look.""

"Why?" I said, but I did it anyway. "Norman, you are way too into ceremony.""

"Okay, okay." He stood up and went over to the corner, picking up the painting and bringing it over to rest against the bright pink belly of one of the mannequins. Then, he handed me a bandana. "Tie that on.”"

"I am not," I said. "I've been waiting forever.""

"Man," he said. "You are, like, so impatient.""