It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)

by Colleen Hoover

My choice helped me realize that sometimes the hardest decisions a person can make will most likely lead to the best outcomes.

don’t even know at this point. His anger is making me question my intentions. This all feels so grossly familiar.

I don’t know if every move I make is the right one, but I’m doing my best. I don’t need his manipulation and gaslighting on top of that.

Nothing you have done and nothing you could do would excuse any man’s hands on you out of anger. Remember that, Lily. You made the right choice by leaving that situation. You should never feel guilty for that. Pride is the only thing you should feel.”

swear, I’m the most out-of-touch millennial I know. It’s as if I skipped right over Gen X and into Boomer territory. I’m a Boomer millennial. A boollennial. Hell, my mother is a Boomer and probably knows more about these things than I do. She’s the one with a new boyfriend. I should call her and ask for pointers.

maybe his curiosity is a cover for his fear.

“I just fake it well,” I say. “I have no idea what I’m doing. No parent does. We’re all full of imposter syndrome, winging it every minute of the day.”

I realize the significance of this moment. I’m alone with an angry man in my apartment, but I’m not in fear for my life, because he isn’t angry at me. He’s angry at the person who hurt me. It’s a protective anger, and there’s a world of difference

and both of these thoughts start swirling together to create this monstrous invasive-thought tornado in my mind.

‘You’re stressing over things that haven’t even happened yet.’ ”

He’s a broken man, but he isn’t broken because of me. He was broken before he met me. Sometimes people think if they love a broken person enough, they can be what finally repairs them, but the problem with that is the other person just ends up broken, too.

I’d take the silent treatment over the alternative any day.