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“I’m not superstitious.” I heard him suck air through his teeth. “I’m a little stitious.”
“Of course I want that. Who wouldn’t want to get hit by a love truck?”
You know, I bet if they did a study about relationships, romantic and platonic, the ones where two people have alternating crust preferences are the ones that work the best.” “Imagine putting that on a dating app,” she said. I made my voice serious. “Must be willing to eat my discarded pizza crusts, no weirdos.”
“Why not forgive? In a world where you can choose anger or empathy, always choose empathy, Justin.
“The truth isn’t supposed to be pretty, right? It’s the truth.”
“Maybe home isn’t a place. Maybe it’s a person.”
“Unhealed trauma is a crack. And all the little hard things that trickle into it that would have rolled off someone else, settle. Then when life gets cold, that crack gets bigger, longer, deeper. It makes new breaks. You don’t know how broken she was or what she was trying to do to fill those cracks. Being broken is not an excuse for bad behavior, you still have to make good choices and do the right thing. But it can be the reason. And sometimes understanding the reason can be what helps you heal.”
“You don’t have to forgive her. You really don’t. You can still love someone that you’ve decided not to speak to anymore. You can still wish them well and hope for the best for them. Choosing a life without them doesn’t mean you stop caring about them. It just means that you can’t allow them to harm you anymore. But if you don’t think your life would be better without them in it, then accept that they have cracks. Try to understand how they got them and help fill them with something that isn’t
“If they’re not safe, why are they cute, Justin?” Emma said.
I was an afterthought to my mother.
Not everything that comes out of crisis is bad. Sometimes your traumas are the reason you know how to help.
It was easier to pretend to be angry and tough than to admit to being devastated and heartbroken.
Because when you’re in love, you do hard things.
like maybe I was the kind of adult I’d needed once and I was making a difference for her while she was missing her mom.
I wanted to be the island. I wanted to be alone and untouchable. To never rely on anyone or love anyone or let anyone love me, because this is what love gets you.
if you can frame the terrible things in the best possible way, that’s where true happiness comes from.
The best kind of love doesn’t happen on moonlit walks and romantic vacations. It happens in between the folds of everyday life. It’s not grand gestures that show how you feel, it’s all the little secret things you do to make her life better that you never tell her about.
“Can we go in the kitchen?” I asked. I didn’t know if I could have another depressing conversation on this sofa, I’d have to set it on fire.
