“I slept well that night because someone had been kind to me.”

“It wasn't that Ginger had messed me up. I realized that most guys would have been grateful. But she had taken some not small thing from me. Nadia was fifteen and she wanted to have sex. I wanted to do her this favor. Hoped that I wouldn't mess her up for life. We were all pretending we knew what we wanted to do with our bodies.”

“Everyone at Bellingham would know me, know who I was, by dinner. Would they consider me the hero or the fuckup? All I had wanted was to be anonymous.”

“I was surprised," I said, "to find someone here with you. I'd rather you existed only when I was around.”

“Even in all that darkness I could see her beauty. Still, I couldn't claim it for myself. Instead, I decided to hurt her."You loved someone," I said, "who was completely inappropriate.”

“I'd like to be a light meter.""A what?""A light meter. Like a photographer uses. Tinks had one this morning." Aidan snapped an imaginary photo of me. "I'd like to be able to measure and know for certain whether people were giving off light or taking light away.""You're strange," I said. "But I think I like that about you.”

“To be with someone who is stronger than you. To have him relinquish his strength.”