More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
I’m still too terrified to open any of my social media applications. Blissful oblivion is the name of the game at this point.
I’m an expert on the soundtrack of Lucie, but I think these sounds might be my favorite.
“I’ll give it to you. I’ll give you anything you want.”
Yeah, lucky me. Lucky, heartsick, painfully obsessed me.
I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to want more. I don’t know what the rules are. I don’t know the next steps.
I’m not used to letting myself feel things. I’m not sure I like it.
I’m so used to reducing myself to feeling things halfway that it’s become second nature.
Because with Aiden, I’m safe.
Wanting someone and wanting them to want me back. I don’t want there to be any confusion. I don’t want him to hesitate.
I’ve always been good at asking for what I want.
“I want you to take what you need too.” Take.
I’ve never had anyone look at me the way Lucie does, like the want is tangled up with the comfort and the affection.
“I don’t want something perfect; I want something honest. Something that can be mine.”
The most precious, delicate things wedge themselves between the plans you’ve made for yourself.
The way he won’t tell me what he wants. The way he won’t tell me anything. I’ve had to pull and prod and pry for every little bit I get. I try to bite down around the edges of my frustration, but I can’t. I’ve been more honest with Aiden than with anyone in my life, and he can’t return the favor.
“I think you tell yourself you don’t deserve the things you want so it’s easier for you to manage your expectations. It won’t hurt if you don’t care, right? How many lies have you told, Aiden?”
Better end it now before you get in too deep and risk hurting, right? You’re so used to distancing yourself from any sort of feeling that you don’t even realize you’re doing it anymore. You watch clips of movies because you don’t want to get invested in a stupid story.
I won’t sit here and listen to you diminish what I feel because you’re scared of what might happen.”
Aiden never stopped believing in love. He forgot how to. He built a fortress around his heart to protect himself and lost the key somewhere along the way.
Contained. Managed. Subdued.
I manage my expectations to keep myself from getting hurt. I keep a careful distance from anything that threatens my ambivalence.
You spent more time in hospitals than out with your friends.
“It was never a choice, Aiden. I was always going to love your mom. And I would never have chosen different, even with everything we’ve endured together. It makes it better, doesn’t it? To know how temporary it all is. To know how special. Love isn’t”—he sighs, a deep, rumbling sound—“love isn’t always sunshine and daisies. Sometimes it’s hospital beds and shaved heads. But I wouldn’t trade any of it. Because all of it is with her.”
“You don’t like mornings. You don’t like to run. And you don’t like to spend time with people, so I’ll ask again. What the hell are you doing here?” “Maybe I need to do more things I don’t like,” I reply, my voice hoarse from all the unnecessary panting.
“I’ve done my best to not feel much of anything. Feeling almost always led to hurting and I didn’t want to hurt anymore. So I decided not to. But I think somewhere along the way, that choice became a habit I didn’t know how to break. I stopped believing in good things. I stopped believing in anything at all.”