“I understood books. I did not understand boys—especially alien boys.”

“She said I was the most sensitive boy she'd ever met, whichI didn't understand because really all I did was not interrupt her.”

“Why did I have to be a good boy just because I had a bad-boy brother? I hated the way my mom and dad did family math.”

“Boys. I will never understand them. Not even the gay ones.”

“Because it was all I wanted to fucking know. It was all I wanted to know in this fucking world: where did the beautiful boys go? Where did the beautiful boys go? Where the hell did they go?”

“That's how I became the damaged party boy who wandered through the wreckage, blood streaming from his nose, asking questions that never required answers. That's how I became the boy who never understood how anything worked. That's how I became the boy who wouldn't save a friend. That's how I became the boy who couldn't love the girl.”