“And, you know, when all is said and done, it really is better to wind up feeling scared and stupid than not feel anything at all.”

“But, here's a sad fact: perfect isn't meant to be. When you aim for perfect, you just wind up ruined.”

“Then I wake up. And, it's not the purple- hued light of the house at three in the morning that has woken me, or the sound of Payton stumbling into the bathroom. It's a hand. A single hand. So innocuous. I feel it before my eyes blink open. A slight weight on my hip. A current of electricity running through me, reshaping the air that I breathe. It takes only a second for me to process what it is, to rearrange the spaces in my head around the feel of his fingers on my body.”

“I can barely breathe but I think that his lips might be better than oxygen at the moment.”

“I wanted to turn away but I was trapped in that spot--in that moment--by those moon eyes. Because even though I couldn't see them, I could feel them looking at me and they burned me so badly that my legs didn't work.”

“Here's what I think: it's one thing to know that rejection is coming, and it's an entirely different thing when it arrives.”

“You know, I never should have let you not be my friend. It's not healthy for either of us.”