Reminders of Him

by Colleen Hoover

People say you fall in love, but fall is such a sad word when you think about it. Falls are never good. You fall on the ground, you fall behind, you fall to your death. Whoever was the first person to say they fell in love must have already fallen out of it. Otherwise, they’d have called it something much better.

But even though I felt like a snake, I didn’t plan on slithering away.

Next time we visit them, I’ll make sure and fuck you before we get here so she can pretend I don’t do things like that.”

“Sometimes I wonder what Scotty would think if he could see us. It makes me hope that an afterlife doesn’t exist, because if it does, Scotty is probably the only sad person in heaven.”

How many losses can one person take before they just throw in the fucking towel, Scotty? Because it sure is starting to feel like I’m all out of wins, here.

It’s strange, being involved in every facet of another human being, and then suddenly not knowing anything.

It’s also strange thinking you know someone but then later realizing maybe you didn’t know them at all.

It’s an intimate thing to say. Admitting out loud that you know what someone else tastes like.

“I wouldn’t mind if we put that on the schedule again for tonight.”

“Hey, Siri!” he yells. Both of our phones go off at the same time. “Schedule sex with Kenna for one hour from now!”

It is what it is. A fucked-up situation, with no evil people to blame. We’re all just a bunch of sad people doing what we have to do to make it until tomorrow. Some of us sadder than others. Some of us more willing to forgive than others.

Sometimes things seem good and perfect in the moment, but when you get hours of reflection afterward, the perfection can morph into something else.

“Ledgerk. That was actually really clever.”

I don’t know if that’s something you practiced, but I have a feeling you didn’t even know you had that kind of power. The power to make people feel appreciated and important.

because one of the things I’ve always hated about relationships is how make-outs seem to stop when sex becomes a thing.

We were young and in love, and surely no one dies when they’re at their happiest.

There was before you and there was during you. For some reason, I never thought there would be an after you.

I hadn’t slept, I was heartbroken, I couldn’t eat or drink anything. I just. Wanted. To die.

I sometimes want to buy myself a headstone and have that date written on it, even though I’m still pretending not to be dead.

“Excuse us while we go coordinate our lies,” I say over my shoulder.

“Oh, come on,” my father says. “We would never.” “I’m serious. This is my new house, and I’ll be damned if you two christen it.”

“Well. I hope you do the right thing.” I lift an eyebrow. “What’s the right thing?” My mother shrugs. “I don’t know. I just hope you do it.”

There are people who find peace in forgiveness, and then there are others who look at forgiveness as a betrayal.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re all born with equal amounts of good and evil. What if no one person is more or less malevolent than another, and that we all just release our bad at different times, in different

“Don’t kiss me or touch me or say anything sweet.” Ledger smiles. “I’ll do my best.”

“Ledger, can you put Ledger in his tank so he doesn’t get lost?”

Maybe the best way to cope with the loss of the people we love is to find them in as many places and things as we possibly can. And

But your nana doesn’t, and sometimes we do things for people we love, even though we wouldn’t choose to do those things for ourselves.”