“Maybe we should've stayed like that, just hanging out. Maybe we never should've kissed those Keeley boys.”

“For a short time, we’d become each other,a little. Maybe that’s what people dowhen they fall in love, mind, body, andsoul. Or maybe we were just weird.”

“That reminds me." I dug into my book bag and pulled out a white cardboard box tied with a string. "I brought these back for you."He looked at the box, then at me, before slowly reaching out. "What are they?""Poisonous snakes. Open it."Zachary untied the string. "They seem like very quiet snakes.""They're stealthy. Or maybe dead.”

“I miss you, Logan." I touched my fingers to my lips, then to the forehead of the Keeley Brothers skull. "I miss you so much."Missing Logan was an emptiness, an ache so dull and deep, it was a permanent part of me. I would never truly get over his death, but someday I would find peace. Missing Zachary, on the other hand, was a searing knife in the gut. I burned to save him from the horrible fates I imagined, and the need to be in his arms again set my skin ablaze. One boy was gone forever. The other was gone now.”

“It's not easy being the Chosen One. Just ask Buffy Summers. Ask Harry Potter. And ask Zoey Redbird, the latest in this list of "lucky" candidates picked by fate to save the world from darkness- and oh yeah, find romance, keep their friends and maybe not flunk every class. In their spare time of course.”

“We were linked, for the endless now that felt every bit like forever.”

“How about, 'I just kissed a guy at Black Weeds because you've been ignoring me. P.S. I love you.”