The Girl In Between Quotes

“Because the truth was I was tired. I was tired of fighting but more importantly I was tired of losing, of being disappointed.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“People don’t exist in just the light or the dark. They exist in the contrast. In the shadows where the two overlap.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“That was one of the worst things about being sick. Someone was always waiting on you, which meant disappointing people was inevitable.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“My lip trembled, my throat raw, and I started to cry. But not because I didn’t look perfect. But because I looked healthy and because I wasn’t sure how long I’d stay that way.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“But maybe I could give myself something too—permission to keep trying. Even when it felt like it was all for nothing. Even if trying was all I ever did, I shouldn’t stop.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“Because for every girl in the history of girls there is always that one guy she can’t seem to shake. Even though she knows he’s not just bad for her but probably the worst thing.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“If I had to pull an all-nighter studying for a test or too many looming deadlines had me pulling out my hair, I wouldn’t end up with just some trendy coffee addiction. I’d end up in a mini-coma, face down in the middle of the studio or on the floor of the community showers.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“You’re still just waiting,” she said. “And so is my mom. Who’d want a lifetime of waiting?” I stared at the soft lines of her lips. “Someone who knows what it is they’re waiting for.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“Time is a false thing, meaningless when it's not attached to colors and people and light because in the dark there is nothing - only the stilted shadows of lie as they wait for the sun.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Things They Didn't Bury

“People weren't made for this kind of thing, he said, the way I feel about you, how much I feel, no one ever has or ever will even come close to it.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Things They Didn't Bury

“the”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“Dani’s mild eating disorder was definitely the most annoying thing about her. One Christmas break I’d gained ten pounds and went up two cup-sizes—a post episode binge that finally made me look normal, like a woman. I would have killed to hold onto that version of me and all Dani did was count calories and complain about her non-existent cellulite. She was lucky. Most people were, they just couldn’t see it.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“Money isn’t everything and happiness is relative.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“that that”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“He was the color of a hydrangea before it blooms, wilting like one too, every inch of him sunken and bruised.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“You know I’ll be right there with you if you want to go to Germany.  Or if you don’t, I’ll be right there too.” “I know,” I said. “You always are.” “And I always will be.” Hot tears pricked at my lashes. I blinked. Because she was wrong. Because she would get older and so would I. She wouldn’t always be there. Whether I still needed her or not, she wouldn’t always be there.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“It’s comfortable and not because he makes you happy—the guy’s a total asshole—but because you already know what to expect. You already know how he’ll hurt you.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“You’re not going to disappear,” I said. “I won’t let you”.
“Even if this is all there is? Going to school and working at my uncle’s restaurant and fighting with Mari? Why would anyone want to remember this?”
“I want to remember you. Just like this.”
She rolled onto her back, hands covering her face, and I pulled them away.
“People like you don’t disappear,” I said.
“Then where do they go?”
“Everywhere.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, Breathing Ghosts

“Something like hope begins to burn in me and I try to snuff it out.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Things They Didn't Bury

“This journal will stay hidden among the dusty coverless books lining my bookshelf until the day I need to be reminded of who I really am. Then I will come for it and maybe I will read it to my son or daughter and pretend it's just another fairytale, changing every dark moment to light, conquering every villain, and replacing the ending with the one I was robbed off.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Things They Didn't Bury

“The gypsies were a special breed. It wasn't blood that flowed through their veins but rhythm.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Things They Didn't Bury

“go of”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“I thought about how it was my self-righteous defiance that had always sustained me in the past. I’m sick but I’ll get better. They said I can’t do it but I’ll prove them wrong. Mantras that suddenly felt like lies. The kind that settle at the base of your stomach and make life feel even heavier.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“And I was still fighting it. Still waiting for that road to carry me home, somewhere that actually made sense.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“Something heavy radiated from the shadow, it’s thickness approaching like a storm. It sunk down to my lungs, filling me up, tugging my eyes closed and making me drowsy. Sleep. It was made of it.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“Then I peered into the hallway and I saw my mom pressed against the wall, one of my uncle’s hands gripping hers, the other tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her cheeks were stained, eyes red, and then he leaned in and kissed her.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“He’s just stuck.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“I stared down at my hips, at my thighs. They looked foreign but not sharp enough to cut straight through. Not like last time. Sometimes I’d wake up ten pounds heavier and sometimes I’d wake up looking like a bag of bones. I didn’t even remember what my body was actually supposed to look like anymore. I didn’t remember normal.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“It was a strange thing knowing that my body was able to function without consciousness. During an episode I could still eat and drink and do all of the necessary things it takes to live. I just couldn’t remember doing them. And yet those strange symptoms were really the only things doctors knew for sure when it came to KLS: the sleeping for long periods of time, the aggression, the binge eating, the delirium.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between

“This time was particularly nasty. My hair was in a tangled mess on top of my head, curls matted into knots I knew I’d spend the next hour desperately trying to untangle. I could see my collarbones sharp beneath my grey skin. My fingernails were long and cracked—the ones on the left shaved down from where my mom had most likely tried to clip them.”
― Laekan Zea Kemp, The Girl In Between