Stephanie Perkins

“I'm saying I'm in love with you! I've been in love with you this whole bleeding year!”

“Why?" His voice is suspicious. "Are you two going out now?""Yeah, we set up our first date right after he asked me to marry him. Please. We're just friends.”

“Sorry to be your second choice.""Don't be stupid. Third choice. Mum's asleep, remember?" He laughs again.”

“One of the new girls followed me in and said she thinks Toph is an insensitive douchebag motherhumping assclown, and that I shouldn't let him get to me. Which was sweet, but didn't really help.”

“I wasn't being a git. I wasn't even being a twat, or a wanker, or any of your other bleeding Briticisms -”

“Oof," he says."Hey, there's a bed there.""Thanks for the warning.""No problem.”

“It's not right. It hasn't been right, not since I met you.”

“Girl scouts didn't teach me what to do with emotionally unstable drunk boys.”

“Beautiful. He called me beautiful! But wait. I don't like Dave. Do I like Dave?”

“I wish for the thing that is best for me.”

“Meretricious. Showily attractive but cheap or insincere.”

“Anna, Anna," Josh interrupts. "If I had a euro for every stupid thing I've done, I could buy the Mona Lisa. You'll be fine.”

“Please. The boy gets a boner every time you walk into the room."My eyes pop back open. Does she mean that figuratively or has she actually seen something? No. Focus, Anna.”

“Why do I care so much about him, and why do I wish I didn't? How can one person make me so confused all of the time?”

“I don't understand why things always go from perfect to weird with us. It's like we're incapable of normal human interaction.”

“Where's your hat?"He squints at me. "Mer? Is that you? Do I need my scarf? Will it be cold, Mummy?”

“His wang is rubbed shiny," Josh elaborates. "For luck.""Why are we talking about parts again?" Mer asks. "Can't we ever talk about anything else?""Really?" I ask. "Shiny wang?""Very," St. Clair says."Now that's something I've gotta see.”

“What do you guys even do every night?" The words slip from my mouth before I can stop them."It," Rashmi says. "They do it. He's ditching us to screw.”

“There are few things worse than having feelings for someone you shouldn't, and I don't like where my thoughts were headed.”

“I moan with pleasure."Did you just have a foodgasm?" he asks, wiping ricotta from his lips."Where have you been all my life?" I ask the beautiful panini.”

“One regular, clockworkorange88, said this: It sucked balls. Dirty balls. Like I-ran-a-mile-in-July-while-wearing-leather-pants balls.Sounds about right.”

“Most people in Atlanta don't have an accent. It's pretty urban. A lot of people speak gangsta, though," I add jokingly. "Fo' shiz," he replies in his polite English accent. I spurt orangey-red soup across the table. St. Clair gives a surprised ha-HA kind of laugh, and I'm laughing too, the painful kind like abdominal crunches. He hands me a napkin to wipe my chin. "Fo'. Shiz." He repeats it solemnly.Cough cough. "Please don't ever stop saying that. It's too-" I gasp. "Much.""You oughtn't to have said that. Now I shall have to save it for special occasions.""My birthday is in February." Cough choke wheeze. "Please don't forget.”

“Thanks. I forgot how to flip off the English. I'll use the correct hand gesture next time.""My pleasure. Always happy to educate.”

“Do you like it?" she asks. Universal bitch speak for I think it's hideous.”

“Har. Bloody. Har."He smiles. "Oh, I see. Known me less than a day and teasing me about my accent. What's next? Care to discuss the state of my hair? My height? My trousers?"Trousers. Honestly.”

“The first thing I notice is his hair - it's the first thing I notice about anyone. It's dark brown and messy and somehow both long and short at the same time. I think of the Beatles, since I've just seen them in Meredith's room. It's artist's hair. Musician hair. I-pretend-I-don't-care-but-I-really-do hair.”

“And it totally depresses me, but the ladies eat it up. They love my father's books and they love his cable-knit sweaters and they love his bleachy smile and orangey tan. And they have turned him into a bestseller and a total dick.”

“Oh my. He's English. "Er. Does Mer live here?" Seriously, I don't know any American girl who can resist an English accent. The boy clears his throat. "Meredith Chevalier? Tall girl? Big, curly hair?" Then he looks at me like I'm crazy or half deaf, like my Nana Oliphant. Nanna just smiles and shakes her head whenever I ask, "What kind of salad dressing would you like?" or "Where did you put Granddad's false teeth?" "I'm sorry." He takes the smallest step away from me. "You were going to bed." "Yes! Meredith lives here. I've just spent two hours with her." I announce this proudly like my little brother, Seany, whenever he finds something disgusting in the yard. "I'm Anna! I'm new here!" Oh, [Gosh]. What. Is with. The scary enthusiasm? My cheeks catch fire, and it's all so humiliating. The beautiful boy gives an amused grin. His teeth are lovely - straight on top and crooked on the bottom, with a touch of overbite. I'm a sucker for smiles like this, due to my own lack of orthodontia. I have a gap between my front teeth the size of a raisin. "Étienne," he says. "I live one floor up." "I live here." I point dumbly at my room while my mind whirs: French name, English accent, American school. Anna confused. He raps twice on Meredith's door. "Well. I'll see you around then, Anna." Eh-t-yen says my name like this: Ah-na.”

“For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”

“The only French word I know is oui, which means “yes,” and only recently did I learn it’s spelled o-​u-​i and not w-​e-​e.”

“I'm a little distracted by this English French American Boy Masterpiece.”

“Pinkie means excited or happy, thumb means thinking or worried. I’m surprised I knowthe meaning of these gestures. How closely have I been paying attention to him?”

“Madame Guillotine gets mad at me. Not because I told them to shove it, but because I didn’t say it in French. What is wrong with this school?”

“Will you please tell me you love me? I’m dying here.”

“I don’t care what he thinks. Only what you think.” He holds me tighter. “Like if you think I need to stop biting my nails.”“You’ve worn your pinkies to nubs,” I say cheerfully.”

“Har. Bloody. Har.”

“Soap?""School of America in Paris" he explains. "SOAP".Nice. My father sent me here to be cleansed.”

“French name, English accent, American school. Anna confused.”

“I'm not sure how to order.""Easy," Josh says. "Stand in line. Tell them what you want. Accept delicious goodies. And then give them your meal card and two pints of blood.""I heard they raised it to three pints this year," Rashmi says."Bone marrow," Beautiful Hallway Boy says. "Or your left earlobe.”

“I mean, really. Who sends their kid to boarding school? It's so Hogwarts. Only mine doesn't have cute boy wizards or magic candy or flying lessons.”

“A moment of reserve. "That was it? The whole story?""Yes. God, you're right. That was pants."I sidestep another aggressive couscous vendor. "Pants?""Rubbish. Crap. Shite."Pants. Oh heavens, that's cute.”

“Closed. Plenty of time to see it later, remember?" He leads me into the courtyard, and I take the opportunity to admire his backside. Callipygian. There is something better than Notre-Dame.”

“The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.”

“Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?”

“You say that I'm afraid of being alone, and it's true. I am. And I'm not proud of it. But you need to take a good look at yourself, Anna, because I am NOT the only one in this room who suffers this problem.”

“This is home. The two of us.”

“Boys turns girls into such idiots.”

“So what do I wish for? Something I'm not sure I want? Someone I'm not sure I need? Or someone I know I can't have?”

“I wish friends held hands more often, like the children I see on the streets sometimes. I'm not sure why we have to grow up and get embarrassed about it.”

“Why is it that the right people never wind up together? Why are people so afraid to leave a relationship, even if they know it's a bad one?”