“I didn’t believe it was happening. But it was.Just being here, being away, it was all so much easier in a way I didn’t anticipate. In a way I didn’tthink my life could be anymore. It was a huge relief.”

“Relieved because what I dreaded most in the whole world was going to happen and I wouldn’t have to live with it anymore—the fear. There is the relief of finally not being alone and the relief of being alone when no one can take anything away from you. Here she was, my beautiful fear. Shiny as crystal lace frost.”

“Sometimes I think life would be so much easier if we didn’t have to think about being boys or girls or men or women or old or young, fat or thin… if we could all just be certain we were the same. We might be bored, but the danger of life and of living would be gone.”

“I didn’t want them to be gay anymore. I didn’t want people like Mrs. Perry to make a face and step away from them; I didn’t want Mike to shuffle his feet and clear frogs out of his throat whenever he talked to my dad; and I didn’t want Chad to go around making fun of himself so nobody else could. And most of all, I didn’t want them to have AIDS.”

“A few months after Julian was safe and sound, Hot Ben kidnapped Tracey. Well, okay, technically he swept her away to Mexico, where they eloped. He just didn’t want to wait anymore. I understood. A lot can happen while you’re waiting. Being the romantic that I always knew he could be, Ben didn’t tell her about it either.”

“That didn’t happen, of course. Things never happened the way I imagined them.”