Next to You (Next, #2)

by Hannah Bonam-Young

Bath bombs with lavender, an oil diffuser, self-help books, a weighted blanket, Sleepytime tea…you get the idea. Like get-rich-quick schemes but for fixing mental illness.

I know his type. I grew up around guys like this. Entitled. He has places to be and people to see who are more important than we could ever understand. Every other human is an obstacle in this man’s way.

“Sometimes it feels like everyone else has a script, and I’m doing improv.”

life is what you do between what you have to do.”

“There’s this quote that I like about grief…about how it’s really just all the love you want to give to the person you lost, building up until it hurts.” He stiffly puts a hand on my shoulder, his arm outstretched in front of him. “You gotta find somewhere to put the love, Lane—or it’s gonna keep hurting.”

Don’t close up on me. Don’t leave me behind while you go fight those dragons. Let me fight next to you.