“I had never walked anywhere with a boy holding hands. It always looked so silly when I watched other people doing it, walking down the halls of the school or around town, but I finally got it. It's a shared moment of quiet intimacy. It's not blatant or showy. It's just, well, lovely.”

“There are times in life when I guess you just needed to face facts, and I think that moment was one of those times. I needed to know who and what I was, not just to Acadia, but also to Leif, and myself most of all.”

“Boys are so strange sometimes.”

“I stepped in front of my closet to decide what to wear. Unless you are a sixteen, almost seventeen, year old girl, you just can’t realize what a difficult task that is.”

“I was sixteen, not three. I was old enough to make my own decisions. Try explaining that to my mom, though.”

“Nothing like hearing you look like crap along with feeling like it.”

“Love never fails, Mila. That's what your parents believed. And because of you, it's what I believe now, too. You stuck by me and loved me when I didn't deserve it. All I want is a chance to prove that I can be worthy of it. Your parents were sort of fucked up in their own way, like me, and they never got the help that they needed. But I will. I promise. I will put the work in. I will learn how to cope with painful things and I will never leave you again. Just tell me that you'll stay with me.”