“Crocodile LiesI confess, yes, our Fall was all my faultIf you kissed my eyes, your lips would taste saltBut you think my regret is a lie, and the tears I cryAre the crocodile kind.The sweat on your upper lip starts to boilWhite hot with anger, still convinced I'm your foilYou keep fighting me, though my eyes are freeFrom crocodile lies.You, yes, you, linger inside my heartThe same you who stopped us before we could startI didn't want to leave, but you began to believeYour own crocodile lies.The only person stopping you is yourself,You won't accept that I want no one else,So until you do, I'll let someone else have youEvery day I live the lie,But not the crocodile kind--Marcus Flutie”
“You, yes, you, linger inside my heartThe same you who stopped us before we could start.”
“Every day, I live a lieBut not the crocodile kind.”
“I read your poem," I croaked. "'Fall.'"Then something I never thought would happen, happened: Marcus Flutie was shocked by something I said."You did?" he said. "I thought you lost it!""Well someone found it for me. Where do you get off saying," I lowered my voice, "we'll be naked without shame in paradise?"He didn't open his mouth."I know what that means, you know. Who do you think I am?"He didn't open his mouth."We are never going to be naked without shame in paradise."He didn't open his mouth."We're NEVER going to have sex," I whispered, clearly over-stating my case.He didn't open his mouth. The mouth that used to bite mine."And I'm just going to forget about that biting thing from the other night," I said.He looked at me right in the eyes. If he'd focused hard enough on my pupils, he could've seen his own reflection, his own face smirking at me."You couldn't forget if you tried," he said, before walking away.He's right. And I don't know if I hate him or love him for that.”
“Fortunately for me, I'm still evolving into the person I'm supposed to be. And though they don't know it yet, and may not come to accept it, I'm done living by their protocols or anyone else's. I'm the only one who will take credit for my successes. And I'm the only one who will take the blame for my mistakes. From now on, I live for me.”
“And yet I know I am too young, that we're too young, for me to live my life only as it relates to you. If you had asked me to marry you the night you first told me about your acceptance, I would have embraced Princeton as part of a larger plan that involved me. I probably would have reacted differently.I might even had said yes.Alas, you didn't ask me then. You made plans for your future without me in mind, And that's okay. But how can you now ask me to arrange my life around you?”
“And I'm falling in love with you," he whispers. "But I would throw you in the water and watch crocodiles tear you to bits, if I thought that doing so would accomplish my goals. Do. Not. Trust. Anyone. Especially me.”