When We Grow Up Quotes

“When I say I was in love with her, I mean, I was sixteen, what does that even mean, right? She liked having sex with me and she needed to make Renzo jealous. We all knew the situation. But every other white girl at that school treated me like a fucking mascot, like this sexless teddy bear they kept around to listen to their problems and protect them from whichever white boy was upsetting them. I think I was just, like … grateful. That she at least saw me as someone she wanted to fuck, someone she would consider dating. I mean, Jessie was never really going to date me, but still. That she wanted me at all.”
― Angelica Baker, When We Grow Up: A Novel

“As it turns out, though, self-destruction is remarkably easy. It generates almost no friction whatsoever. All these years she’s refused to slip up, wrapped herself in the most reliable man she could find and wordlessly promised her parents that they’ll never be asked to scramble their limited resources to protect her from the consequences of her own judgments. All these years she thought she knew what was required to be happy: never to lose what she’d already gained. Flail all you want, stall out, achieve nothing new. Just don’t lose what you already have.”
― Angelica Baker, When We Grow Up: A Novel

“And tonight, she had clocked Clare’s every movement, including her departure from the table a few minutes ago.”
― Angelica Baker, When We Grow Up: A Novel

“I think you have a pretty good grip on adulthood,” he said. Which made her want to put her head in his lap and ask him to tell her all the things he knew and remembered about her, all the things he took to be self-evident and stable. Only a liar would pretend it’s not intoxicating, to realize how closely someone has been paying attention, and for how long.”
― Angelica Baker, When We Grow Up: A Novel

“Two women in their forties, with a deflated look that indicates toddlers waiting for them somewhere nearby, approach the pool only to retreat immediately. Clare shrinks; those women surely deserve a peaceful hour by the pool more than she does.”
― Angelica Baker, When We Grow Up: A Novel

“Mac came into things soon enough, first through Kyle—they were on the flag football team together—and then, of course, through Jessie, who was eager for any chance to make out with him in front of Renzo. It was only later, after everything with Renzo’s mother, that Mac became as quick as the rest of them to protect Renzo, to excuse the vicious outbursts and the flagrant taste for self-destruction.”
― Angelica Baker, When We Grow Up: A Novel