“High school sucked. It was a universal truth, and whoever said these were supposed to be the best years of your life was probably drunk or delusional.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Jackson High Biology Department. Stay in school, kids- Link”

“The lonely reality of the truth-that the most important person in your life suddenly ceased to exist. Which on a bad day meant maybe she had never existed at all. And on a good day, there was the other fear. That even if you were a hundred percent sure she had been there, maybe you were the only one who cared or remembered.”

“I'd ridden to school with Link every day since kindergarten, when we became best friends after he gave me half his Twinkie on the bus. I only found out later it had fallen on the floor.”

“It almost felt like she was sucking it all out of me, like she sucked on that sticky red lollipop, the one she kept licking as she drove.”

“Even when I didn't know anything else about where I was or what I was supposed to be doing. You were my Wayward, even then. Everything always brought me back to you. Everything.”

“Sixteen moons, Sixteen yearsSixteen of your deepest fearsSixteen times you dreamed my tearsFalling, Falling through the years”