We'll Always Have Summer (Summer, #3)

by Jenny Han

A fight is like a fire. You think you have it under control, you think you can stop it whenever you want, but before you know it, it’s a living, breathing thing and there’s no controlling it and you were a fool to think you could.

But just because you bury something, that doesn’t mean it stops existing.

Maybe that was how it was with all first loves. They own a little piece of your heart, always.

Firsts were important. But I was pretty sure lasts were even more important.

I wanted him to leave me alone, and I wanted him to keep trying to fix things. But if I didn’t know what I wanted, how could he possibly?

A mood

Girls with boyfriends, she’d said, limit themselves to a certain kind of college experience.

He was marrying my girl, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to watch it happen, because he was my brother, because I promised. Take care of him, Connie. I’m counting on you.

“On a scale of one to ten, how in love were you?” “You can’t put being in love on a scale,” I said. “Either you are or you aren’t.”

“When did you know you were in love?” I didn’t have an answer to that question. There hadn’t been one specific moment. It was like gradually waking up. You go from being asleep to the space between dreaming and awake and then into consciousness. It’s a slow process, but when you’re awake, there’s no mistaking it. There was no mistaking that it had been love.

The promises you make on your mother’s deathbed are promises that are absolute; they’re titanium. There’s no way you’re breaking them.

“I see you again, and everything I planned goes to shit. It’s impossible.… I love Jere more than anybody. He’s my brother, my family. I hate myself for doing this. But when I see you two together, I hate him too.” His voice broke. “Don’t marry him. Don’t be with him. Be with me.”

love wasn’t something you could erase, no matter how hard you tried.

So no, he didn’t give me flowers or candy. He gave me the moon and the stars. Infinity.

There are moments in every girl’s life that are bigger than we know at the time. When you look back, you say, That was one of those life-changing, fork-in-the-road moments and I didn’t even see it coming. I had no idea. And then there are the moments that you know are big. That whatever you do next, there will be an impact. Your life could go in one of two directions. Do or die.