Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle and Dante, #2)

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

It’s funny, I didn’t ever pay much attention to adults because, well, because I just didn’t think about them and the fact that they had lives like I had a life. I guess I just thought they were in charge and they liked to tell you what to do. I hadn’t really thought about anything except what I felt. Damn, I’d lived in a pretty small fucking world. And this world I was living in now, it was complicated and confusing—and it sort of hurt to know that other people hurt. Adults. They hurt. And it was a good thing to know that. It was a better world that I was living in now. It was better. And I was better now. It was like I’d been ill. And I was recovering from an illness. But maybe that wasn’t true. I’d just been a stupid kid. And selfish. Maybe this is what being a man was. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t a man just yet. But maybe I was getting closer. I wasn’t a boy anymore, that was for sure.