Nicole Williams

“It's because you're letting the fairy tales you grew up hearing in storybooks and the baseless ideas of love cloud your mind. Love isn't easy. Especially the really good kind. It's difficult, and you'll want to rip your hair out just as many days you'll feel the wind at your back." She paused smiling to herself. "But it's worth it. It's worth fighting for”

“The first day of kindergarten when the little boy in a blue polo shirt had sat next to me and told me he’d be my friend when I couldn’t stop crying after my dad had dropped me off. The boy who’d brought me a tray of brownies, a stack of movies, and sat with me on the couch all week after I broke my leg in fifth grade. The boy who’d blushed whenever I talked to him or looked his way when we became teenagers. The same boy who made it his business to make sure all the other boys treated me right.”

“He had a temper, not a good thing. Because I had one too.”

“I'd discovered another of life's cliches by being with jude: the happier you are in life, the faster it passes you by.”

“That it doesn't matter why I ran," he said, staring at me without blinking, "because I came back. I'll always come back, Luce. No matter how many rip-roaring fights we have and no matter how many miscommunications we have. I'll always come back because you're where I belong.”

“Mi nombre es Jude Ryder, ya que serás mi esposa en algún momento no muy lejano. Y no solía tener novias, dar flores, o tener citas. Y luego te conocí, y eso funcionó para ti. Así que cambié por ti. Y he cambiado para mí también. Y nos salió algo especial.”

“Mi nombre es Jude Ryder, ya que sé que estás casi babeando como un perro rabioso por saberlo, y no tengo novias, ni relaciones, ni doy flores o llamadas regulares. Si eso funciona para ti, creo que podríamos trabajar en algo especial.”

“I can forgive a man’s past faults, his present shortcomings, and his future failures if every minute of every day he loves me like it’s his religion.”

“Jude was the sickness I didn't want to be cured of. He was the intoxicant I never wanted to be clear of.”

“And then I met one whose face I couldn't forget. I fell in love with her and was afraid she was going to leave me the way everyone else had... I still love her.”

“As I'd discovered this week, Jude was every kind of mystery that appealed to a woman and every kind she could never unveil. He was every enigma to which I wanted the answer to.”

“The world is your playground.”

“I curse the day starvation became a commonly accepted diet for women.”

“Now why didn't I think of that? Because uncomplicating the complicated is the easiest thing in the world.”

“Hey, don't judge me. I was doing the best I could with the circumstance I'd been given.”

“I wasn’t sure what was required for home schooling, but I’d take ten hours a day, seven days a week, with no bathroom or lunch breaks if it meant never returning to this cesspool of suck again.”

“This type of guy was every type of wrong on the surface, but there was something more there, something I’d seen in that flash of vulnerability that sucked me in.”

“I also knew you wouldn’t stop your staring until you learned the cold, hard truth. So, consider yourself warned. I might not be the kind of guy that reads textbooks at the beach,” he said, glancing back at my open book, “but I’m smart enough to know girls like you should stay away from guys like me. So stay away.”

“She’s too hot, even for you. And since she’s got a book, she probably knows how to read, so she’s smart enough to know to avoid guys like you.”

“I didn’t know his name, didn’t know if he had a girlfriend, didn’t know if he wanted one, but I knew I was in trouble.”

“Glancing up at Jude, I found him looking at me, staring at me like he couldn't help it. Maybe that's because I could have updated my heritage status from Caucasian to Tomato Red.”

“How does a guy like you promise someone forever at eighteen?”“Easy,” he said, pressing a soft kiss into the corner of my mouth. “He finds a girl like you.”

“It always amazes me how when we’re sure we’ve lost something for good, it winds up finding us.”

“I’m cancer, Luce. And not the kind that you can kill off with radiation. The kind that kills you in the end.”

“I’d found boys were fairly simple creatures to figure out, at least on a primal level—on a mind, heart, and soul matter they were about as confounding to me as thermal dynamics—and since primal was just a nice term for raging hormones, I decided to use their overabundance of teenage boy ones to my advantage.”

“Don't let the fear of losing them keep you from loving them.”

“Hi, I’m Jude Ryder Jamieson,” he began, extending his hand. I took it, shaking it. He held onto it when I tried to pull it back. “My mom left when I was thirteen. My dad’s serving a life sentence for killing a young kid. I spent the last five years in a boys’ home being bullied, beat, and abused by the kids, the staff, and even the goddamn dog. I sold drugs. I did drugs. I got arrested. A lot. I screwed a lot of faceless women.” He paused, sucking in a breath. “And then I met one whose face I couldn’t forget. I fell in love with her. I hurt her because I fell in love with her and was afraid she was going to leave me the way everyone else had.” He lifted his other hand, cradling mine between his. “I still love her.”

“It was silent, but a silent that was so loud I wanted to cover my ears.”

“If I ever mess things up again, whether it’s a misunderstanding, or shit luck, or I just do what I was created to do and screw everything up,” he paused, exhaling, “I want you to promise me you’ll leave. Drop me like a bad habit and don’t look back because god knows, it can’t be me that walks away since I’m incapable of it.”

“You’ve got all my firsts,” he said. “All the ones that matter.”

“This man was the pope, president, and god of dodging the topic. Too bad for him he was dealing with the queen, holy mother, and empress of seeing through a man’s stream of shit.”

“I’ll be here, each day and every day on, as long as you want me to be”

“I’m his girlfriend?” It was meant to be a question to myself, but Taylor couldn’t let it go unanswered.“You’re the first,” she said, looking at me like I was a puzzle. “You lucky bitch.”

“Rain. Jude. Me. KissingStick a fork in me because I was done.”

“Honey, a girl can’t keep a man like that as a friend. He’s a lover or an ex-lover, but never a friend. Men like that weren’t created to be a woman’s friend – they were created to make a woman hit high C three times in row.”

“It’s not hard to recognise something special when life’s thrown a lotta shit your way”

“The name’s Jude Ryder, since I know you’re all but salivating like a rabid dog to know, and I don’t do girlfriends, relationships, flowers or regular phone calls. If that works for you, I think we could work out something special.”

“That might be because you drew your own conclusions before asking questions.”

“Don’t even think about saying he only did it because he’s looking out for my best interest.” “I wasn’t,” William replied. “I was going to agree with you. It was none of his bloody business.”

“You the one that got jumped?”I didn’t think my blood-matted hair and debris ridden clothes needed an answer, but he was waiting for one. Not the brightest crayon in the box.”

“Tool,” William said,...."As in a device to perform or facilitate mechanical or manual labor?” “That’s right Encyclopedia Britannica. Or in layman’s terms: screwdriver, hammer—” “How about a wrench,” William interrupted,“ —"You’ve got a quick learner on your hands, Bryn,” Paul said .... “Sure, wrench works just fine as well,” ... “Whatever blows your skirt up buddy.” ...“Well a wrench would come in handy right now,” William mused. “Because you definitely have a couple screws loose.”

“First impressions are everything, and second impressions are nothing”

“Go get your man. Go be happy and miserable together.”

“Our reputations weren't who we really were, they were who people told us we were. Some of us fell into that trap, while others fought their entire lives to break free of them.”

“The thing was, if staying away from him made me unsmart, I never wanted to be smart again.”

“But haven't you noticed that with guys like Jude, a girl just doesn't care about her reputation?”

“Don't live life hiding behind your past, live for right now.”

“At least you died and went to heaven”

“Whoa,” a stunned voice said, whistling a row below me. “You’re the girl Jude Ryder’s going to marry and make baby superheroes with?”

“How do you feel?” I asked, trying to bring my heart rate down. It wasn’t having any of it. “How’s your head?”“My head’s fine,” he said, winding his arms around my back. “It’s my goddamn heart that’s about ready to bust something.”