“Never love that which you cannot keep.”

“Love you more," I said playfully."Not a chance," Xavier said, fully awake now. "I'm bigger, I can contain more love.""I'm smaller, therefore my love particles are more compressed, which means I can fit more in.”

“You want to marry me? I was thinking we’d start slow and see where things went, but hey, what the hell!""I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m crazy about you."“So you hadn’t noticed? That’s not a good thing—I’m going to have to be moredemonstrative in future.”“Beth . . . for so many guys sex is the only thing that keeps their relationships from falling apart, but we’re not like that. We have so much more. I’ve never discussed it with you because I’ve never felt that we needed to. I’m sure it would be amazing, but I love you for you, not for what you can offer me.”“Beth, I love you and nothing makes me happier than being close to you. You’re intoxicating.”“Because when I look at you, I see my whole world. I’m not about to walk away; I wouldn’t have anything left.”"The world could fall apart around me, and it wouldn’t matter if I had you.”“A man in love can do extraordinary things. I don’t care if you’re an angel, you’re my angel, and I won’t let you go.”

“If you think you love me, then you don’t know what love is,' Gabriel said. 'Love has to be reciprocated for it to be real.”

“Love you,” Xavier said just before he drifted back to sleep.“Love you more,” I said playfully.“Not a chance,” Xavier said, fully awake now. “I’m bigger, I can contain more love.”“I’m smaller, therefore my love particles are more compressed, which means I can fit more in.”Xavier laughed. “That argument makes no sense. Overruled.”“I’m just basing it on how much I miss you when you’re not around,” I countered.“How can you possibly know how much I miss you?” he said. “Have you got some sort of built-in miss-o-meter that can give us a reading?”“I’m a girl; of course I have a built-in miss-o-meter.”

“How could you tell children they were playing with fire if they´d never had the experience of being burned?”

“I like literature," I said. "We started watching the film version of Romeo and Juliet today."I didn't tell them this, but the love story fascinated me. The way the lovers fell so deeply and irrevocably in love after their first meeting sparked a burning curiosity in me about what human love might feel like."How are you finding that?" Ivy asked."It's very powerful, but the teacher got really mad when one of the boys said something about Lady Capulet.""What did he say?""He called her a MILF, which must be offensive because Miss Castle called him a thug and sent him out of the room. Gabe, what is a MILF?"Ivy smothered her smile behind a napkin while Gabriel did something I'd never seen before. He blushed and shifted uncomfortably in his chair."Some acronym for a teenage obscnity, I imagine," he mumbled."Yes, but do you know what it means?"He paused, trying to find the right words."It's a term used by adolescent males to describe a woman who is both attractive and a mother." He cleared his throat and got up quickly to refill the water jug."I'm sure it must stand for something," I pressed."It does," Gabriel said. "Ivy, can you remeber what it is?""I believe it stands for 'mother I'd like to...befriend'," said my sister."Is that all?" I exclaimed. "What a fuss over nothing. I really think Miss Castle needs to chill.”