“...She is so relieved to know that he's better and is finally getting the sleep he needs and she misses him.”

“As it turned out, she was alone after all. She prayed that he'd come back to her, because she missed him and needed her connection, her fix.”

“You ready?" Evan asks, and he's looking at me, and I love his hair, I love his smile, I lo--"I Love You," I say, and as I watch his smile bloom I finally get how great those three little words are. I finally get what they really mean.”

“My father looked like he was having a stroke— notthat Mel seemed to notice because he just kept talking.“Patrick needs a ride. No car, you know, and so I figured,hey, I can pick up some gas money.” He laughed. No oneelse did, and now Patrick looked like he was trying topush himself inside the door and hide.”

“After a couple of days of complete hell , rest is at the top of the agenda. As he fades away to an overdue peacefulness, he misses her .”

“She looked at me for real and saw I was serious. She saw I knew she was for me like you know that tomorrow morning the sun will rise.”

“There's no good way to die, you know? No way I've seen, anyway. It all ends with tubes and bedpans and IVs and I just-- smoking gets me out of there. Gets me outside, gets me away from all the--""Sick people?" I say, and she shakes her head."Away from my life.”