“Isn't that interesting.""Hmmmm?""When you blush, it doesn't stop at your collarbone.”

“Can I...Can I...""You can do anything." She shivers as his hands move over her body, but this time it is wholly unmixed with fear and she cannot believe how wonderful it feels.---I've...had something in my wallet ever since I knew...Well, ever since I hoped that there would be a time when I would need to...protect you like this.""And when was that?""If I answer that, then will you stop talking?""Yes." "I will because your answers are so perfect.""I saw you try and take care of someone that you thought was weaker than yourself, I couldn't believe that someone who had been through what you;d been through could be that...well, generous, and thoughtful...”

“It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body... ”

“And I was right to be...to become a cutter, because maybe you think this doesn't look so bad, that girls cry, that people cry, but you'd be wrong, you'd be so wrong, anything...anything at all...would feel better than this does. I'm...sorry." She tries to catch her breath. "I'm sorry to be putting you through this...""Willow, you haven't put me through anything.”

“We'd already talked in the stacks, and I knew you were different from any other girl I'd met. And you told me that your parents were dead, and I thought that you were so . . . lost and vulnerable. So when I saw you in the physics lab . . . and I saw you try and take care of someone that you thought who had been through what you'd been through; could be that . . . well, generous, and thoughtfull . . ." Guy said."But you hardly knew me." said Willow"I know . . . I didn't know that we'd even talk again, or that if we did, if we'd get along, or maybe you were seeing someone else . . . I just knew that the way you tried to protect someone's life that, especially given your situation . . . I just . . . I though that you had to be the most special girl I would ever meet . . .”

“She starts to roll down her sleeve, but Guy stops her. He holds her arm, looks at her cuts, traces the pattern of her razor marks with his hand."Don't, it's..."Willow stops speaking as he bends his head and kisses her scars.She knows she should tell him to stop, but she can't because she wants him to go on forever. She knows too that she will probably pay for this feeling with other less pleasurable ones, but still she can't bring herself to pull her arm away.”

“She watches as the blood springs from the cut she's making, but it doesn't change anything. Not this time. She swipes again, deeper. Now she feels pain, but will it be enough?”