“I respect the hell out of her for how hard shes working to be okay. I just wish shed let me show her how to let go, how to let herself hurt. I want to take her pain.”

“Hot heart-blood leaked from my face. From my eyes and my nose and my mouth. Not tears, because those would never stop. This was just liquid heartbreak seeping from my pores.”

“But we have to learn to be free. We have to, Nell. Doesn't mean happy all the time, or okay all the time. Its okay not to be okay. I told you that, but I'm relearning it myself. But not being okay ...”

“But I think youre beautiful. Youre lovely. I shifted uncomfortably under the intense scrutiny and prickling heat in his eyes. Thanks? He thinks I'mlovely? The idea that Kyle thought I was not just ...”

“It wasn't supposed to. It was just supposed to stop you from hurting yourself. It helps No it doesn't. It just pushes it away temporarily. Just like the booze. But I need You need to let yourself f...”

“Its not okay, I tell her. This gets her attention; its not what she was expecting. You dont have to be okay. What do you want from me? Her voice is ragged, desperate. I want you to let yourself be ...”

“I respect the hell out of her for how hard shes working to be okay. I just wish shed let me show her how to let go, how to let herself hurt. I want to take her pain.”

“But we have to learn to be free. We have to, Nell. Doesn't mean happy all the time, or okay all the time. Its okay not to be okay. I told you that, but I'm relearning it myself. But not being okay ...”

“The door slams in response, and I laugh. I'm glad she can laugh. It means she really is coping. I know shes internalizing a lot, though. Putting on a show for me. Shell have new scars on her wrists...”

“I hurt myself, Syren bit out. I make myself bleed and it feels good. It eases the pressure inside me, but it never lasts for long. His lips trembled. Before I slept in your bed, Id never had a full...”

“Look. I have a strategy. Why expect anything? If you dont expect anything, you dont get disappointed.”

“I tried cutting myself to express my heartbreak over Tommy (Lord Flood) rejecting me, but OMFG it hurts like flaming fuck.”

“Falling in love is like getting hit by a truck and yet not being mortally wounded. just sick to your stomach, high one minute, low the next. Starving hungry but unable to eat. hot, cold, forever ho...”

“Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand”

“I have often wondered since at my own firmness. In that dreadful interview with my uncle I had felt, in the whirl and horror of my mind, on the very point of submitting, just as nervous people are ...”