Texting Dr. Stalker Quotes

“And so, I stayed on that awful carousel of knowing I needed to grieve, all while being far too stubborn to think I needed to grieve anything.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“I’d known her as the shy girl next door and now as the kneeling vixen offering herself to me. The two versions of her scrambled the two versions of me. The right and the wrong. The saint and the sinner. The martyr and the monster.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“All I knew was… X was my dirty secret, Zander was my guilty pleasure, and right now, I needed to hide what I was going through so my best friend wouldn’t judge me.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“You’re healing. You’ll be fine without me. I contacted you to help you breathe again, but now you’re somehow stealing all my air. It’s best for both of us to end this.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“I hate that you’re the one who’s completely in charge of this relationship. I have no way to stop you from fading away, just like I had no way of stopping you from barging into my life. I want to be mad about that, but… you taught me how to claim my life back, so I can’t be. Not really. I’m”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“Who did I owe the most loyalty to? The man who’d made me come alive again or the man who’d kept me alive in the first place?”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“None of this is your fault, and to say so is egotistical and robbing her of her justified trauma. Stop making this about you.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“The expression that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach might work on some, but for me? The way into my heart was to let me care. To trust me enough to put your very life in my hands, and tonight, she’d done that. She’d gone to sleep outside. She’d trusted that I’d watch over her. She trusted a stranger with shady means of communication to guard her against all other men, including the one who’d covered her in bruises.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“I’d gotten to the point where I didn’t care what secrets he had. If he had a criminal background, oh well. If he secretly killed people, hopefully they deserved it. If he turned out to be on the run or embezzled funds or hoarded any number of sins… I didn’t care. Because I loved him. And love could overcome everything.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“A wise part of myself knew I needed to feel what I was feeling in order to free these blocked emotions inside me. I had to be kind to myself and acknowledge that right now, I was feeling hurt and weak and small, and the sooner I allowed myself to feel it, the sooner I could move on. But the moment I tried to let myself sink into the grief of losing something I couldn’t even name, another wall would shoot up and fortify the barrier I’d already put in place. It came with thoughts like ‘You’re being silly, you’re fine.’ ‘Stop moping, you’re alive.’ ‘Stop feeling sorry for yourself, so many others are worse off.’ And so, I stayed on that awful carousel of knowing I needed to grieve, all while being far too stubborn to think I needed to grieve anything.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“Ever since that incident, I’d done my utmost to avoid any kind of healing that involved talking, crying, and sympathy because I wasn’t wired that way. My idea of helping was to do something about it, not just sit around and do nothing. Even though doing nothing was exactly what most people with trauma needed. Silence in which to heal. Quiet in which to hide.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“I had no worries in my own life. Which meant I had plenty of time to give it to other people who might not have as much as I did.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“The programming that’d been drilled into me to stick to the facts and never give more information than necessary couldn’t override the sudden burning violence in my veins.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“It was also before my annoyance toward her turned into something else. Something I didn’t want to name and would flatly deny if anyone asked me. Something that had always been there, slowly building as the years passed by, getting harder and harder to ignore, especially on those lonely nights when I spied her through the window.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“To those green flag heroes who do red flag things… because love makes us all a little crazy.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“Just…it’s been a long week, that’s all.” “It’s Tuesday.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker

“I’d once scarred my eldest sister so badly that I’d been banished from offering a shoulder to cry on. It wasn’t my fault that she’d asked me to try to save her dead hamster, and I’d helpfully announced it was dead and I could perform an autopsy instead.”
― Pepper Winters, Texting Dr. Stalker