“maybe one of the reasons i don't express myself as well as i want to is because inside, shoved way down into an unseen pit, i'm not sure of what i want. ”

“lucy went along with her mother because ginny wanted her to, because lucy felt it was what girls did with their mothers - watch in silence as, under the cones of dryers, mothers fell out of listening range and into the distance. ”

“jenna preferred to think of alice that way - like an art project, colors swirling inside her, rather than of how sick she was. ”

“it occured to her that kissing and being kissed were two different things. and being kissed by someone you've really wanted to is something else again.”

“or maybe love is summed up in moments - that day in the park, the time you had chinese food by candlelight, when the boy you liked left a message, finally, on your machine. maybe the telling of those moments is even better than the moments themselves. ”

“at keltner's deli, everything was somehow neutralized. they were girls. they were girls with odd names who smoked after school together and maybe sometimes alone.”

“i mean, heather said, our bodies are just these things that we float around in. it's not like they belong to anyone”