That Was Then, This is Now

by S.E. Hinton

But since I knew her so well, I could ignore the way she looked.

And now everybody’s kinda slipped away, and then we woulda died for each other. Really, man, remember? It was great, we were like a bunch of people makin’ up one big person, like we totaled up to somethin’ when we were together.”

“Yeah,” Mark sighed, “but there’s a difference. I wonder what the difference is?” “The difference is,” I said evenly, “that was then, and this is now.”

When people asked me what happened, I told them, but I could see that they were going to believe what they wanted to believe and hearing the truth wasn’t going to change their minds. People are generally like that.

Now the greasers wore their hair down on their foreheads instead of combed back—this went for Mark and me too—and the Socs were trying to look poor. They wore old jeans and shirts with the shirttails out, just like the greasers always had because they couldn’t afford anything else. I’ll tell you one thing though: what with fringed leather vests and Levi’s with classy-store labels in them, those kids were spending as much money to look poor as they used to to look rich. It was crazy.

But I was a “poor white,” and they were “liberals,” so I got invited to the parties so everyone could see what hip, hip people they were.

I have a vague notion that the Left is Hippie and the Right is Hick, but I really don’t know much else.

He smiled, like an innocent lion.

Parents never know what all their kids do. Not in the old days, not now, not tomorrow. It’s a law.

I don’t know if “like” is the right word for how I felt about Angela. I had been wrapped up in her, I had to see her every day, I had to talk to her ten times a day on the phone; but now, looking back on it, I don’t remember ever liking her.

I guess I just couldn’t see standing there—alive, talking, thinking, breathing, being—one second, and dead the next.

It’s funny how you don’t think about people until after they’re dead. Or gone.

When I remembered us, it didn’t seem possible that we had looked as silly as these teenyboppers, but I guess we had.

“It’s not just a stage!” Cathy cried. “You can’t say, ‘This is just a stage,’ when it’s important to people what they’re feeling. Maybe he will outgrow it someday, but right now it’s important.

Don’t try to make me out to be blind, just because you are.

I had learned something from everyone, and I didn’t seem to be the same person I had been last year. But like a mixture, I was mixed up.

She was going to be bitter all her life, and all that beauty was wasted.

I am too mixed up to really care. And to think, I used to be sure of things. Me, once I had all the answers. I wish I was a kid again, when I had all the answers.