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My thoughts were nice and slow. It always happened when I sat next to Shannon Lynch. It made me want to sit with her forever.
“You remind me of Joe.” “Your brother?” “Yep.” She nodded again. “And that’s a very good thing.”
“I can say worse,” I added, scowling up at the bully. “I can do worse, too.”
She sort of resembled a ghost. Or an angel. Something different. Something special.
Our mothers called it harmless puppy love, but I wasn’t so sure about that.
“I don’t think I like you, Lizzie Young.” He looked out the window when he whispered, “I know I do.”
no matter what.” My heart leapt. “No matter what?”
For the rest of my life, I would help. I would save people. I would bring them back to life.
“Because there’s too many broken hearts around here.”
It didn’t matter to me. Because it wasn’t real. The doctors said so. The monsters were all in my head.
Because I knew deep down inside that I would sit with Lizzie Young for the rest of my life if it kept the sadness out of her eyes.
All I felt was peace and contentment. Claire gave that to me without even realizing.
Gibsie reached for my hand at the same time I reached for his,
“He’s bad, Liz. He does it at my house, too.”
“Yeah, Gibs?” “You sure you’re okay?” “Yep.” Smiling, I reached up and brushed a tear from his cheek. “I’m always okay, Gibs.”
“They’re drawn to fellow weirdos?” Hugh mused with a knowing smile. “That must be why I’m so obsessed with you.”
Gibsie was a master concealer.
“You,” he replied. “You remind me of someone I used to know.” “Who?” “My younger self,”
“I’m okay, Hugh,”
“I’m always okay.”
This girl felt sadness in her bones.
“If wit was shit, you’d be constipated.”
“I would rather shit in my hand and clap.”
They didn’t ask the right questions. They didn’t believe me. So I stopped believing in them.
Because those scars on my wrists depicted the ugliest parts of my mind. But Hugh kissed each one like they were beautiful. Like I was beautiful. Like I was still me.
My girl.
Gibsie was the greatest friend a person could have. He was loyal, trustworthy, had the best personality in the whole school, and really fucking cared about the people he loved. Feely and I both knew that friends like Gerard Gibson didn’t come around too often, and I was glad Johnny realized it, too.
“There’s nothing to talk about because I see you, Mark. I finally see what you are. You’re a monster in disguise!” “…I finally see what you are…” “…You’re a monster in disguise…” “…You’re a monster…”
He was a monster. The monster was real. Mark was the monster.
“Hughie.” Sobbing uncontrollably, my oldest friend in the world locked his arms and legs around me. “Hughie.”
Nodding his head, Gibs squeezed me tighter. “I want my d-dad.”
“I’m so sorry, Liz,” he croaked out, wrapping his arms around me. Numb, I rested my cheek on Gibsie’s shoulder. “I’m so, so fucking sorry.”
Gibsie of all people. “You know.” She dropped to her knees in front of him and grabbed his hands. “I know you know, Gibs. I helped you. I did. I helped you, and now you have to help me.”
“I thought you were my friend,” Lizzie cried, looking more broken in this moment than I’d ever seen her as she stared at Gibsie, who was standing with his family. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“Because I love you most of all.”
Beyond devastated at the realization of losing one of his best friends, Gibs had spent most nights since the funeral in floods of tears,
“Well, I put that there to remind you that as long as I have air in my lungs, I’ll never let you go under.”
“Since the day you told me you would say yes if I asked you to marry me,” he replied without a hint of hesitation. “So you better keep that heart beating, ya hear?” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “Because I need you, Lizzie Young. More than you realize.”
“I don’t want you to turn your back on Liz,” he croaked out weakly. “I don’t want her to not be my friend.”
“Trust me, that kind of sadness never goes away. The world just stops seeing it.”
the monster never said the name Thor.
new semicolon charm attached to my bracelet.
“A good day, baby.” Yeah, it was.
her feelings for him far outweighed anyone else in her world, and it was only a matter of time before the scales weighed in his favor.
Because despite withdrawing from life and locking everyone out of her world, she left a key out for me.
“What can I say?” Kav replied with another shrug of his shoulders. “I’m more of a brunette man.”
“If you hurt me like that, like the way you almost hurt me last night, I will walk away.”
Rooted to the spot, while my brain struggled to comprehend what my eyes were seeing, I felt my heart shatter into a million pieces.
“I loved you, Liz. Me.” He slapped a hand against his chest. “I fucking loved you enough to put you first. Even when it was hard to do the right thing.
“I was in the relationship, too, and I wasn’t fucking ready for sex, okay? I gave you nine fucking years of my life, and you fuck a randomer in my bed?”
