“Look at her," said a pert little dinoflagellate with a perfectly smooth protein coat. "Look at her with her nose up in the air, refusing to divide.”

“Music is the poetry of the air.”

“I sigh into her and give up the fight. My fingers thread through her hair, pulling her closer, knowing I'll never get enough of her. She intoxicates me, but not in the way that leaves a man senseless. She lifts me up like a breath of sweet air, like sun on my skin, like...god.No, not god. Like the idea of god, the one I imagined when I was a boy.”

“She is so beautiful. Perfect. Mine.No. Not mine. I am hers.”

“I leaned back to look at her, seeing only her, this girl who was Ally but also Alona, and who bore a resemblance to a friend i'd once had but was someone new. Someone i could live without, but didn't want to”

“Do you have any idea who Erin was kissing?""Yeah, so we'll brush out teeth really, really thoroughly afterwards," I said, bumping her nose with mine gently. I wasn't going to let anyone spoil this moment.”

“I suspected those people were seeking to make sense of the world by turning her into a cautionary tale, the lesson being, look both ways. And don't be such a bitch.”