“Dear Amy, It must really suck to know you peaked at twelve.Love, Kristen”

“Whatever helps you not to use. (If pushing a peanut up a hill with your nose keeps you sober, well, then, just push a peanut up a hill with your nose.)”

“I think that there are many different ways of getting and staying sober. Like religion, I just don't think that one way is the only way.”

“He yanked his t-shirt out of his jeans, pulled a penknife out of his pocket, cut away the hem and pressed it against my temple. This must have meant he didn’t have tissues in the glove box.”Excerpt From: Ashley, Kristen. “Rock Chick Rescue.” Kristen Ashley. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.”

“A man who don't know history, he don't know anything.”

“I never got to take you to the prom. You went with Henry Featherstone. And you wore a peach-colored dress.”“How could you possibly know that?” Callie asked.“Because I saw you walk in with him.”“You didn’t know I was alive in high school,” Callie scoffed.“You had algebra first period, across the hall from my trig class. You ate a sack lunch with the same three girls every day, Lou Ann, Becky and Robbie Sue. You spent your free period in the library reading Hemingway and Steinbeck. And you went straight home after school without doing any extracurricular activities, except on Thursdays. For some reason, on Thursdays you showed up at football practice. Why was that, Callie?”Callie was confused. How could Trace possibly know so much about her activities in high school? They hadn’t even met until she showed up at the University of Texas campus. “I don’t understand,” she said.“You haven’t answered my question. Why did you come to football practice on Thursdays?”“Because that was the day I did the grocery shopping, and I didn’t have to be home until later.”“Why were you there, Calllie?”Callie stared into his eyes, afraid to admit the truth. But what difference could it possibly make now? She swallowed hard and said, “I was there to see you.”He gave a sigh of satisfaction. “I hoped that was it. But I never knew for sure.”Callie’s brow furrowed. “You wanted me to notice you?”“I noticed you. Couldn’t you feel my eyes on you? Didn’t you ever sense the force of my boyish lust? I had it bad for you my senior year. I couldn’t walk past you in the hall without needing to hold my books in my lap when I saw down in the next class.”“You’re kidding, right?”Trace chuckled. “I wish I were.”“Then it wasn’t an accident, our meeting like that at UT?”“That’s the miracle of it,” Trace said. “It was entirely by accident. Fate. Kisma. Karma. Whatever you want to call it.”

“I do know this. It's the things we run from that hurt us the most." –Brad Sturdevant”