Part of Your World (Part of Your World, #1)

by Abby Jimenez

“Don’t let them decide the life you’re going to live. You only get one.”

“Look at that man-trum. Eight thousand nerves in the clitoris and still not as sensitive as a white man not getting his way.”

“Just keep her laughing,” Doug said. “When a woman laughs, her eyes are closed more. She won’t notice how ugly you are.”

“Okay, but seriously, I didn’t do that.” “Yeah, you did. I have scratches down my back too.” I gasped, and his eyes twinkled. I did remember clawing at him a bit . . .

“Ali, men are two things. Disappointing and consistent. I believe you.”

“You know what’s so dangerous about drowning?” I said, looking up at him. “It’s silent. So unless someone’s paying close attention to you, no one saves you.”

was looking for something for you, actually,” he said, letting go of my hand to dig in his pocket. He pulled out something and put it in my palm. It was a rock about the size of a walnut, smooth and gray. “It’s shaped like a heart,” he said. “Took me two hours to find it.”

It’s amazing how someone can touch you, even if you only know them for a moment in time. How they can change you, alter you indelibly.

There is a peace in knowing the one thing you can’t live without. It simplifies all things. There was her, and then there was everything and everyone else. And only she really mattered. It was easy to know it.

“I love you,” he whispered. “We are together. This isn’t over. And even if you leave, it won’t be over because you’ll take the love with you and it’ll bring you back.”

Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense. It doesn’t even stop when the person you love dies. It does what it wants. Even if what you want is to not be in love.

There’s something more final than forever. It’s never. Never is infinite.

“The world is ending, Alexis. That’s what this feels like. So come with me now.”

Because sometimes family isn’t what you’re born into. Sometimes family is found.