Emma Straub

“Even if she wasn't happy on the inside, the outside could be something else entirely. There was always another character to play.”

“... She was as beautiful and lost as a landlocked mermaid.”

“They were with their mother, and so they were acting like children.”

“... She might have thought that it was the case, that all things worked out in the end, and that the world was a benevolent place, but she knew better now, and had to fake it.”

“That was what love was, though, wasn't it? Holding each other's misery as close as your own?”

“She wanted the world to stop and take notice before hobbling forward, forever changed. The problem was that no one seemed to be changed but her.”

“Things that happen in seven years: Brad Pitt in Tibet. The itch.”

“Laura wanted all of it back, every moment, so that she could live it all over again.”

“Laura was going to sew herself into the shape of happiness all on her own.”

“It was nice to be in such close physical proximity, even though they hadn't spoken in months, and only via cursory birthday cards and the like. In the end, it didn't matter. Sisters were sisters.”

“...all she wanted was a button she could push to pause her age, just for a little while, a few years, while she got used to the idea.”

“No on thought that they would be anything more or less than perfectly fine.”