“He leaned toward me and said his name like he was sharing a secret and it made me think he probably kept a lot of secrets. His smile was sweet and his teeth the tiniest bit crooked.”

“I'm sorry I'm so pathetic," he thought, and then realized he had also said it.Beth laughed, so lightly and so kindly that Denis felt it in his chest, not his stomach.Can I tell you a secret?"Yes, tell me all your secrets Denis kept to himself.Beth leaned in, whispered: "All boys are pathetic.”

“Lucas had told me only one lie, ever; he kept the secret of black Cross because it wasn’t his secret to tell. In every other way, he’d been honest with me and shared the hard truths nobody else thought I deserved to hear.”

“You give me things too," he said in a hushed voice as he bit off the cap. "Like what?" "A headache," his smile widened.”

“He'd kept this silence because his own secrets were darker, more hidden, and because he believed that his secrets had created hers.”

“He gave the tiniest of smiles and it made me want to think of ways to see it more often.”