“She loves you, loathes you, treats you well, then ill. Like a leech or a surgeon's knife, she's double-edged: sometimes she'll cure, but sometimes she will kill.”

“You may think you know someone very well. But there'll always be parts you can't see. Sometimes she'll look weak, but she is hiding her strength. Sometimes she'll seem strong... and yet she's so fragile on the inside.”

“Well, you know, your mom gets like this sometimes," Simon said. "Like when she breathes in or out.”

“It doesn't work like that," she said, and I was hoping she would tell me how it did work.Maybe she could see that, because she went on. "Sometimes you're loved because of your weaknesses," she said. "What you can't do is sometimes more compelling than what you can.”

“Well, if she was dumb enough to marry you, she'll believe anything.”

“Echo might be on the outs since she became a cutter and all, but she's still a popular chick. She'll bail on you and treat you like shit in the end." She took another draw. "There's only so many times people like us can have our hearts ripped out. She's a ripper.”