“Words have power. And I may be privileged and have a higher IQ than any of our former teachers, but when people look at me? They see a black, male teenager. And there is nothing quite as frightening to some folks as an angry young black man.”

“There will come a moment when there's nothing you want more than us. Together. When you're free of every fear and there is nothing in our way.”

“I didnt notice the small, black streak of fur hurtling in my direction untill it she was only a few feet away. Noah whisked the dog into the air just as it charged for me. "You little bitch," Noah said to the snarling dog. "Behave.”

“But non of this matters, because you're not going to listen to your token black Jewish bi friend, are you?”

“My chest cracked open at his words. I stared into Noah's perfect face and tried to see what he saw. I tried to see us - not individually, not the arrogant, beautiful, reckless lost boy and the angry, broken girl - but what we were, who we were, together. I tried to remember holding his hand at my kitchen table and feeling for the first time since I'd left Rhode Island that I wasn't alone in this. That I belonged.”

“Why do you always look like you just rolled out of bed?''Because usually I have.' And the way he raised his eye-brow at me made me blush.'Classy,' I said.”

“You're distracting,' I said truthfully.'I won't be. I promise,' Noah said. 'I'll get some crayons and draw quitely. Alone. In a corner.”