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225 pages, Hardcover
First published December 28, 2010
My Very Own Final Soundtrack List:
One Two – Bitter and Sick
Ben Howard – Promise
Crystal Fighters – Bridge of Bones
Angus & Julia – You’re The One That I Want
Bright Eyes – Devil Town
Atl-J – Every Other Freckle
Foster the People – I Would Do Anything for You
Dala – Dream a Little Dream of Me
Hozier – Take Me to Church
The Jepettos – Chemicals
London Grammar – Chasing My Young Years
The Dandy Warhols – We Used to be Friends
“It’s funny how you can see a person in your greenhouse every day, and you can watch movies next to him on the couch and sometimes go get pizza or something for most of a summer, and you don’t share all the dark secret details of your lives. Back when I was friends with Nora, Kim and Cricket, the dark secret details of our lives were what friendship was all about. We talked about fights with our parents, dreams for the future, guys we liked, disappointments and small triumphs. There was an endless series of notes, e-mails, and phone calls.”
Meghan pushed her chocolate cheesecake across the table to me. I hadn’t gotten paid yet for November, so I had only ordered coffee. “Here,” she said.
“Don’t you want it?”
“Sure I want it. I ordered it. But I’m giving it to you.”
“Why?”
Meghan stood up and got me a fork. “Remember what Nora said about love? In your movie?”
“Love is when you have a really amazing piece of cake, and it’s the very last piece, but you let him have it,” I said.
“So it’s really amazing cake,” said Meghan. “And I want you to have it."
In life, maybe you do eventually find love, but it's not with your high school boyfriend. It's with a completely different person whom you never even met before--someone who didn't figure into the first part of the story at all. In life, there's no happily-ever-after-into-the-sunset. There's a marriage, complete with arguments, bad hair, lost hair, mentally unstable children, weird diets, dogs that fur up the couch, not enough money. Like my parents. That's their life I just described-but then, there they were, talking on the phone about my dad massaging my mom's groin area after yoga; cuddling on the couch; holding hands and wearing stupid Great Dane paraphernalia.
That's all we can realistically hope for. In fact, I think it's as close to happily-ever-after as things get. Though I am not yet sure if I find that fact depressing or encouraging.