Sarah Dessen

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"I was running from one problem or place to another, with no time left to study, or sleep, or just breathe. I felt pulled in all directions, fighting to keep all these obligations circling in the air above me. It was only a matter of time before something fell."

"I felt like I'd been swimming so hard, and the water growing warmer and warmer the closer I got to the top. I wasn't there yet, but now I could see the surface, rippling just beyond my fingers."

"For two hours I'd felt myself stretching tighter and tighter, like a rubber band pulled to the point of snapping. And now, I could feel the smaller, weaker part of myself beginning to fray, tiny bits giving way before the big break."

"Now I felt like I was drifting, sucked down by an undertow, and too far out to swim back to the shore."

"I was drowning in broad daylight and no one could tell."

"I mean, it's not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's, like, part of you for good."

"Two a.m.' He swallowed, then said, "You know. The person you can call at two a.m. and, no matter what, you can count on them. Even if they're asleep or it's cold or you need to be bailed out of jail...they'll come for you. It's like, the highest level of friendship.”"

"Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you."

"It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be."

"Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”"

"When you can't save yourself or your heart, it helps to be able to save face.”"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"Yes, I said after his hello."

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

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

"The answer . . . he said slowly."

"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.""

"He was very quiet for a moment. Where are you?"

"I started crying again, my voice ragged. He told me to calm down. He told me it was going to be all right. And then, he told he'd be there soon.”"