Before I Fall

by Lauren Oliver

The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.

I close my eyes and promise myself I’ll never forget this moment: the sound of my friends’ laughter and the heat from so many bodies and the smell of rain.

It’s the time of the night I like best, when most people are asleep and it feels like the world belongs completely to my friends and me,

That’s the way I feel, at least: like there’s a real me and a reflection of me, and I have no way of telling which is which.