All Hail the Underdogs Quotes

“I like to think of personal discovery and developing your perception of self that way, a process of building that needs all the difficult and unsavory experiences at its foundation.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Love is supposed to be a reckless thing. But all I’m made of is caution.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Go fuck yourself,” Damien says genially.
“Fuck me yourself, you coward.”
Damien trips on his skates.
“Oh shit,” Rome says. “Are you okay?”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“I hate you,” Rome says, slamming the passenger door.
“Don’t play,” Damien says. “You love me.”
He might.
It’s sort of becoming a problem.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Jesus,” Rome says. “I thought you were a poet.”
“I do sometimes.”
“You do what?”
“Write poetry about you. Because you’re so… you could be so much, I think. If you weren’t—“
Damien sighs. “It helps… to write about you. Sometimes.”
Rome suddenly feels a lot more sober, standing there in the hallway, for all intents and purposes, holding hands with Damien Raphael Bordeaux. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Damien sighs, letting go of his hand. He stumbles a little, and Rome catches him before he can topple back down the stairs.
“Don’t tell, okay?” Damien says, leaning into him. “About the poetry.”
“Don’t tell who?”
“Rome.”
“Okay,” Rome agrees. “I won’t.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Damien rests his elbows on the railing next to Rome, and Rome leans into him. Like it’s natural. Like they do this, together, all the time. Maybe it’s because Rome is cold. Maybe it’s because he wants to thank Damien for coming with him to the hearing, and the contact between them is the only way he knows to express appreciation. Maybe it’s because he wants to.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“The thing is, he wants to be touched, now. He thinks he might even deserve it. But trying to reevaluate the various ways that his past has fucked up his understanding of interpersonal relationships is hard. Does he like Damien’s hand on his neck because it’s Damien’s hand? Or because it’s a modicum of physical kindness?”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“And Damien has fucked him up with his casual touching and easy affection because his first instinct is to hug her. He gives her a fist bump instead. “Hey,” he says.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Damien, who wants to know Rome’s weaknesses not so he can use those weaknesses against him, but so he can know how to love Rome better. Maybe. Or, maybe not love. He wonders if it is love though. He wants it to be love.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“The feelings I have for you are not gross.”
And that—is a lot more than he meant to say.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Rome is startled enough to look up at him. “All feelings are gross,” he says.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“It all adds up: the interesting face; the long, wiry frame; the taut, fight-ready stance – to create a body that casting directors for edgy photoshoots would salivate over. The sort of photoshoots that, if they involve teeth, it isn't because people are smiling”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Right,” Rome snarled, “but sometimes violence is the question and the
answer is yes.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“It is a strange, tenuous place to exist, one that falls somewhere between wanting what he can't have and having what he shouldn't want, and he doesn't know how to navigate it.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“He wants to touch him. He wants to write him. I wish I was smaller. I wish I was a tidy thing I could place in your hands. He has to look away, for a moment, to get the words in his head to quiet down. He can’t get his phone out and start composing a poem on the spot. That would be weird, even for him.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“The point is that we love you,” Olly says. “You. Period. And that’s not just Damien. That’s all of us.” “Oh.” “And maybe Damien loves you a little different from the rest of us,” Olly muses, raising his eyebrows pointedly, “but that’s none of my business.” Rome thinks he might need to sit down.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Rome is…something. Something important. The potential there—in linked arms and over-the-shoulder glances—is both exhilarating and a little terrifying: necessary of caution. He’s like a poem in a language Damien doesn’t know. But he wants to.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“And that is so marvellously spiteful, so— so Rome that Damien could kiss him.
And—
Oh.
Oh no.
Damien wants to kiss him.
With, like, feelings.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“I wish I was smaller. I wish I was a tidy thing I could place in your hands.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“He and Olly make a Pinterest board over breakfast.”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs

“Actually, Rome,” Olly says, stupidly kind and completely unaware he’s ruining everything”
― E.L. Massey, All Hail the Underdogs