“Your hair looks funny," Lief said, as soon as the Ugloids left. "It stands straight up!"No," said Nick, intensely irritated, "It's hanging straight down."Lief just gave him an upside-down shrug. "Up is down in China and you're part-Chinese.”

“This game's stupid," said Lief. "Who the heck is Zelda, anyway?”

“Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"Allie considered this. "Meaning?""Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads.""Or tails," suggested Allie."What are you talking about?" said Lief."Life and death.”

“Anyway, don't they have girls your age down there?" Talon shrugged. "Yeah...but none of them ever sprayed me with eye-poison.”

“We weren't going anywhere," Nick said with a smile. He was trying to sound charming, but instead wound up sounding heavily sedated.”

“I remember the first time I saw you,” Allie said.“I thought you smelled me first.”“Right,” said Allie. “The chocolate. But then I saw you as I sat up in the dead forest, thinking I knew you. At the time, I thought I must have seen you through the windshield when our cars crashed…. But that wasn’t it. I think, way back then, I was seeing you as you are now. Isn’t that funny?”“Not as funny as the way I always complained, and the way you always bossed me around!”They embraced and held each other for a long time.“Don’t forget me,” Nick said. “No matter where your life goes, no matter how old you get. And if you ever get the feeling that someone is looking over your shoulder, but there’s nobody there, maybe it’ll be me.”“I’ll write to you,” said Allie, and Nick laughed. “No really. I’ll write the letter then burn it, and if I care just enough it will cross into Everlost.”“And,” added Nick, “it will show up as a dead letter at that the post office Milos made cross into San Antonio!”Allie could have stood there saying good-bye forever, because it was more than Nick she was saying good-bye to. She was leaving behind four years of half-life in a world that was both stunningly beautiful, and hauntingly dark. And she was saying good-bye to Mikey. I’ll be waiting for you, he had said…. Well, if he was, maybe she wasn’t saying good-bye at all.Nick hefted the backpack on his shoulder. “Shouldn’t you be heading off to Memphis?” he said. “You’d better hit the road…. Jack.” Then he chuckled by his own joke, and walked off.”

“I love you, Brew." "No you don't," he said. "Just shut up and take it," I told him. He smiled. "Okay.”