“Have you made any other friends since we've been here?"I gave him the death stare. "Yes, actually.""Who? I want a name.""Jamie Roth.""The Ebola kid? I heard he's a little unstable.""That was one incident.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, Jamal Feldstein-Roth.”I blinked. “Wait, Jamal?”“Suck it,” he said with a grin. “My parents are liberal Jews from Long Island, okay? They wanted me to have a connection to my heritage.” Jamie made air quotes with his fingers. “I’m not judging—my middle name is Amitra. I’m just surprised.”“Amitra,” Noah amused. “Mystery solved.”“What is that?” Jamie asked me.“Sanskrit? Hindi?” I shrugged.“Randomly?”I shook my head. “My mom’s Indian.”“What does that mean?” Jamie asked me.“What does Jamal mean?” I asked him.“Point taken.”

“what if they make me stay? To keep me safe?”“I wouldn’t, if I were them.”“What do you mean?”“Any minute now . . .”Two seconds later, the sound of an alarm filled my ears.“What did you do?” I said over the noise as he backed up toward the bathroom door.“The girl who gave you the note?”“Yes . . .”“I caught her staring at my lighter.”I blinked. “You gave a child, in a psych ward, a lighter.”

“Rubbish. The Taj Mahal is only a hundred eighty-six square feet. This house has twenty-five thousand."I stared at him blankly."I was kidding," he said.I stared at him blankly."All right, I wasn't kidding. Let's go, shall we.?""After you, my liege.”

“Two seconds later, the sound of an alarm filled my ears. ''What did you do?'' I said over the noise as he backed up towards the bathroom door. ''The girl who gave you the note?''''Yes...''''I caught her staring at my lighter.''I blinked. ''You gave a child, in a psych ward , a lighter?''His eyes crinkled at the corners. ''She seemed trustworthy.''''You're sick,'' I said, but smiled.''Hey, nobody's perfect. '' Noah smiled back.”

“I knew one hundred little things about Noah Shaw but when he kissed me I couldn't remember my own name.”

“Someone always says, 'Kids are mean.' 'Kids will be kids.' Which implies that the kid bullies will grow out of it someday." The muscles in his jaw tightened. His stare was unfocused and far away. "I don't think they do. I think kid bullies turn into adult bullies.”