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“That’s my sister,” I said in a tone that should have made him wet his pants. “And if you ever think about even looking in her direction again, I will make you wish you hadn’t.”
Why weren’t lesson plans required for social gatherings?
If I was being honest with myself, I wanted to shove her up against her car and let our breath cloud as one while I slid my hand under all those layers and toyed with her.
The printer beeped, angry at me for daring to request that it print on both sides of the page.
Austin Hale’s eyes were blue like a bright sky. When they were on me, I felt like the only person on earth. His undivided attention was intimidating and addictive at the same time.
I knew what it looked like to fake a smile when you didn’t feel up to it.
Nothing like being completely replaceable.
I craved his attention like a drug. It was potent and addictive.
“It’s always the quiet ones that have the dirtiest minds.”
You’re not a Creeker until you can look at your elders and say, ‘Ha! Suck a duck!’”
“You can have a seat,” I said. “But it’ll have to be in my lap because I’m definitely going to win.”
“You ever had a firefighter straddle you?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Austin Hale: always the firefighter, never the fire.”
“Please keep living. One day I’ll catch up to you and I need to know what it looks like to not give up.”
“You could probably walk in a room and make underwear spontaneously combust.”
“I feel like everyone else got a crash course in adulthood and I’m trying to play catch-up with CliffsNotes.” “Wanna know a secret, Sugar?” he said, craning his neck down. His mouth brushed against my ear. “We’re all just making it up as we go. No one really knows what they’re doing.”
Just because you feel you’re behind, doesn’t mean you are. People grow and experience life at their own pace. It’s not a race.”
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that you only hate your body because you’ve never experienced how good you can feel in it. You’ve only experienced what it feels like for your body to fail you.”
People aren’t prizes. Kisses and virginity and any other vulnerable milestones—they shouldn’t be treated as trophies to be won.”
“All doe-eyed and innocent. You make me want to ruin you. The way you’ve been dancing around me, like you don’t know exactly what being around you does to me, makes me want you that much more.”
I occasionally got myself off, but it never felt like… Like I would die if I didn’t have him.
“I’m safe with you, right? I’m… I’m not scared when I’m with you.”
“Acting like my dad is not a turn-on.” I grinned as I ripped her leggings down and threw them off. “Sugar, I’m not your dad, but I can sure as hell be your daddy.”
“I’m not going to take your virginity, Caroline. You’re gonna give it to me.”
“Now, take me like a good girl.”
“You are more than the sum of your past and present. The future is an unknown variable, and that’s the best part.”
“I have scars from saving other people. You got yours from fighting for yourself. And that takes a hell of a lot more strength.”
“Florists are for anniversaries and apologies. Gas station roses aren’t planned. It’s something that says, ‘I saw this and thought of you.’ Gas station roses die in, like, five minutes. A gas station rose means I thought of you and I had to see you before I did anything else because I’ve been thinking about you all week and couldn’t go another minute without seeing your pretty face.”
And she was looking at me like I was a sequin-covered strawberry doughnut.
“You’d better not have done anything to make my sweet little duckling feel weird!”
“How magical life can be when you look up from the mundane.”
“Do you actually need to be alone or are you trying not to seem like a burden? Because I’ll tell you right now. You’re not a burden, sweetheart. I’m right here, and I want to help you if I can.” Damn him.
“No one’s commentary on your life matters except your own.”
Push my body to hurt until I’ve distracted myself.” “That sounds like a punishment, not a distraction.”
“Just because your pain is different than mine doesn’t make it any less valid. Life hurts. Things are never black and white. It’s not even shades of gray.”
“You can wish whatever you want about your own life.
“Maybe sometimes it’s better to wait and seize life when you’re ready for it, rather than just floating along, letting life happen to you.
“Let yourself be wanted; not just needed. Fulfilling needs is easy for you. Letting yourself be wanted isn’t. You’re the guy whose arms people leap from after you rescue them. You watch them run to someone else time and time again and it kills you. You’re bleeding out inside while pretending to be strong enough to survive it.”
“But I ran to you because I wanted to. And I don’t want you to let go of me.”
“I think falling in love is supposed to be messy.”
“Most of all,” he said, catching his breath. “My favorite thing about you is that you’re mine.”
when all you see when you close your eyes is pain, it leads you to some dark places.”
“Because it’s what we do for the people we love. We hurt with them. We carry them. We bleed for them. We save them. And we help them heal.”
“Don’t tiptoe through life. Make it messy. Make it loud. Take up space. Try something new.”
