“Isn’t this exactly what I wanted? Why do I feel so sad then, like I had suddenly just lost everything?”

“I stumbled away. I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and just looked athim. "What was that?"His chest rose and fell heavily. "A kiss.""Why?""Why?" He laughed. His blue eyes suddenly looked so sad. "Because I've wanted to do that for twenty years.”

“Why had this power come to me? I can scarcely govern myself. At times, I feel as if I could dance through the halls with happiness, and then, just as suddenly, my thoughts are dark and lost and frightening.”

“I had a weird, empty feeling inside me. Not a bad sort of empty. It was a sort of lack of sensation, like being in pain for a long time and then suddenly realizing that you're not anymore. It was the feeling of having risked everything to be here with a boy and then realizing that he was exactly what I wanted. Being a picture and then finding I was really a puzzle piece, once I found the piece that was supposed to fit beside me.”

“We're cool," I say calmly, although I feel something else. I feel... sad. Like I've lost something I never quite had.”

“If Im so brave, why do I feel like I might just ...scream?”