Variation

by Rebecca Yarros

The only person telling me what I could and couldn’t do was me.

“Dreams can change.” He smiled as he stood, then backed away toward the door.

Allie’s absence drained the colors from the sky, the taste from my food, the peace from a hot shower . . . every cliché in the book applied. I’d lost them all, and it was time to go.

“Time was the enemy, Hudson. Not you.” He tossed the ball again.

“Dreams aren’t stagnant, Allie. They grow. They shift.”

You need to stop hiding behind what everyone else wants, because you’re the only one responsible for your happiness. You

you can have everything you want if you’d just get out of your own way.”

“I love you. I’m always going to love you. This is me holding on. I don’t want five minutes—I want a lifetime.”

“Every day. Every night. You and me.”