Lia Sarong > Lia's Quotes

“Did you know...you make me so happy that sometimes I actually forget to breath? I'll be looking at you, and my chest will get so tight...and it's like, the only thought in my head is how much I want to reach over and kiss you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Never, never, never. I am never going to forget you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Cause, frankly, the way I see it, you and me? Inevitable.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“That was not like riding a bike, you asshole!”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Ruby, give me one reason why we can’t be together, and I’ll give you a hundred why we can. We can go anywhere you want. I’m not your parents. I’m not going to abandon you or send you away, not ever.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“...crackers..." a voice breathed out nehind us, "yesss..."
Both of us turned, watching as Chubs twisted around in his seat and settled back down, still fast asleep.
I pressed a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. Liam rolled his eyes, smiling.
"He dreams about food," he said. "A lot.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Liam cleared his throat again and turned to fully face me. “So, it’s the summer and you’re in Salem, suffering through another boring, hot July, and working part-time at an ice cream parlor. Naturally, you’re completely oblivious to the fact that all of the boys from your high school who visit daily are more interested in you than the thirty-one flavors. You’re focused on school and all your dozens of clubs, because you want to go to a good college and save the world. And just when you think you’re going to die if you have to take another practice SAT, your dad asks if you want to go visit your grandmother in Virginia Beach.”
“Yeah?” I leaned my forehead against his chest. “What about you?”
“Me?” Liam said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m in Wilmington, suffering through another boring, hot summer, working one last time in Harry’s repair shop before going off to some fancy university—where, I might add, my roommate will be a stuck-up-know-it-all-with-a-heart-of-gold named Charles Carrington Meriwether IV—but he’s not part of this story, not yet.” His fingers curled around my hip, and I could feel him trembling, even as his voice was steady. “To celebrate, Mom decides to take us up to Virginia Beach for a week. We’re only there for a day when I start catching glimpses of this girl with dark hair walking around town, her nose stuck in a book, earbuds in and blasting music. But no matter how hard I try, I never get to talk to her.
“Then, as our friend Fate would have it, on our very last day at the beach I spot her. You. I’m in the middle of playing a volleyball game with Harry, but it feels like everyone else disappears. You’re walking toward me, big sunglasses on, wearing this light green dress, and I somehow know that it matches your eyes. And then, because, let’s face it, I’m basically an Olympic god when it comes to sports, I manage to volley the ball right into your face.”
“Ouch,” I said with a light laugh. “Sounds painful.”
“Well, you can probably guess how I’d react to that situation. I offer to carry you to the lifeguard station, but you look like you want to murder me at just the suggestion. Eventually, thanks to my sparkling charm and wit—and because I’m so pathetic you take pity on me—you let me buy you ice cream. And then you start telling me how you work in an ice cream shop in Salem, and how frustrated you feel that you still have two years before college. And somehow, somehow, I get your e-mail or screen name or maybe, if I’m really lucky, your phone number. Then we talk. I go to college and you go back to Salem, but we talk all the time, about everything, and sometimes we do that stupid thing where we run out of things to say and just stop talking and listen to one another breathing until one of us falls asleep—”
“—and Chubs makes fun of you for it,” I added.
“Oh, ruthlessly,” he agreed. “And your dad hates me because he thinks I’m corrupting his beautiful, sweet daughter, but still lets me visit from time to time. That’s when you tell me about tutoring a girl named Suzume, who lives a few cities away—”
“—but who’s the coolest little girl on the planet,” I manage to squeeze out.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I hugged him without any kind of fear or self-consciousness, fiercely, with a rush of emotion that almost brought tears to my eyes.
"I could kiss you!" Chubs cried.
"Please don't!" I gasp out, feeling his arms tighten around my ribs to the point of cracking them.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I'm a monster, you know. I'm one of the dangerous ones.
No you aren't, he promised. Your one of us.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Dreaming led to disappointment, and disappointment to a kind of depressed funk that wasn’t easy to shake. Better to stay in the gray than get eaten by the dark.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I pulled myself from his mind, day by day, piece by piece, memory by memory, until there was nothing of Ruby left to weigh him down or keep him bound to my side..”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“If there was one good thing that came out of all this, it was that I got to meet you. I would go through it all again - I would, as long as it meant I'd met you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Where in the world did you get that dress?"

"Present from Zu."

"You look like you want to throw it in a fire."

"I can't promise there won't be an unfortunate accident later on.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“But hey, what's life without a little adversity?"
That had to have been the fakest attempt at optimism since my fourth grade teacher tried reasoning that we were better off without the dead kids in our class because it'd mean more turns on the playground swings for the rest of us.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Because, my weird has been able to cancel out your weird, Lady Cross-Stitch.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“—I don't want to lose you
—Then why are you the one that keeps letting go?”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“But there was another, secret Ruby. This one was as thin as a wisp of air, and had struggled for so long just to be. This was the one that Liam carried with him, without knowing. The one that would ride in his back pocket, whisper words of encouragement, tell him he was born to chase the light.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“But inside or out, I was alone, and I was beginning to wonder if I always had been, if I always would be.”
― Alexandra bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Nope," he whispered, when I tried to tug it away. "Mine now.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“You can destroy a factory, and they'll build another. But once you destroy a life, that's it. You never get that person back.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“A moment later, Liam's bright blue eyes opened, and he was seeing me. He just wasn't seeing Ruby.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Breathing him in wasn't enough, I wanted to inhale him. The leather, the smoke, the sweetness.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Yep, she called to me from the parking lot of abandoned cars. The sun was shining though her windows like a beacon of hope."

Chubs groaned. "Why are you so weird?"

"Because my weird has to be able to cancel out your weird, Lady Cross-stitch.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Dear Dad,
When you sent me to school that morning, I thought you loved me. But now I see you for what you are. You called me a monster and a freak. But you’re the one that raised me.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“So help me God,” I said slowly, clearly, when Cate looked up at me. “If you go back on your word, I will tear you apart. And I won’t stop, not ever, until I’ve destroyed your life and the lives of every single person in this organization. Believe me, you may not always keep your promises, but I do.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“That girl was gone forever, and all that was left was a product of the place that had taught her to fear the bright things inside of her heart.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Ruby,
I lied before. I would have run.
—CG”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“And, in that moment, the person that needed me most was the one walking away.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Those rabbits stopped fighting the system, because it was easier to take the loss of freedom, to forget what it was like before the fence kept them in, than to be out there in the world struggling to find shelter and food. They had decided that the loss of some was worth the temporary comfort of many.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I closed what little distance was left between us, one hand sliding through his soft hair, the other gathering the back of his shirt into my fist. When my lips finally pressed against his, I felt something coil deep inside of me. There was nothing outside of him, not even the grating of cicadas, not even the gray-bodied trees. My heart thundered in my chest. More, more, more—a steady beat. His body relaxed under my hands, shuddering at my touch. Breathing him in wasn’t enough, I wanted to inhale him. The leather, the smoke, the sweetness. I felt his fingers counting up my bare ribs. Liam shifted his legs around mine to draw me closer.

I was off-balance on my toes; the world swaying dangerously under me as his lips traveled to my cheek, to my jaw, to where my pulse throbbed in my neck. He seemed so sure of himself, like he had already plotted out this course.

I didn’t feel it happen, the slip. Even if I had, I was so wrapped up in him that I couldn’t imagine pulling back or letting go of his warm skin or that moment. His touch was feather-light, stroking my skin with a kind of reverence, but the instant his lips found mine again, a single thought was enough to rocket me out of the honey-sweet haze.

The memory of Clancy’s face as he had leaned in to do exactly what Liam was doing now suddenly flooded my mind, twisting its way through me until I couldn’t ignore it. Until I was seeing it play out glossy and burning like it was someone else’s memory and not mine.

And then I realized—I wasn’t the only one seeing it. Liam was seeing it, too.

How, how, how? That wasn’t possible, was it? Memories flowed to me, not from me.

But I felt him grow still, then pull back. And I knew, I knew by the look on his face, that he had seen it.

Air filled my chest. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, I didn’t want—he—”

Liam caught one of my wrists and pulled me back to him, his hands cupping my cheeks. I wondered which one of us was breathing harder as he brushed my hair from my face. I tried to squirm away, ashamed of what he’d seen, and afraid of what he’d think of me.

When Liam spoke, it was in a measured, would-be-calm voice. “What did he do?”

“Nothing—”

“Don’t lie,” he begged. “Please don’t lie to me. I felt it…my whole body. God, it was like being turned to stone. You were scared—I felt it, you were scared!”

His fingers came up and wove through my hair, bringing my face close to his again. “He…” I started. “He asked to see a memory, and I let him, but when I tried to move away…I couldn’t get out, I couldn’t move, and then I blacked out. I don’t know what he did, but it hurt—it hurt so much.”

Liam pulled back and pressed his lips to my forehead. I felt the muscles in his arms strain, shake. “Go to the cabin.” He didn’t let me protest. “Start packing.”

“Lee—”

“I’m going to find Chubs,” he said. “And the three of us are getting the hell out of here. Tonight.”

“We can’t,” I said. “You know we can’t.” But he was already crashing back through the dark path. “Lee!”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds