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He grinned again. We'd only been seeing each other for a few weeks now, but this easy give-and-take still surprised me. From that very first day in my...more

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It was just a tiny moment. Not a kiss, not even real contact. But for all the things it wasn't, it meant so much.

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You did listen." He sat back, nodding his head. "Okay, then. Now tell me what you really thought.""I told you. It was interesting.""Interesting," he s...more

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As Isabel acted out her date, both of them laughing, I stayed in the kitchen, out of sight, and pretended she was telling me, too. And that, for once,...more

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He had a nice smile. Seeing it, I felt like I’d won a prize, because he was so sparing with them.

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You only really fall apart in front of the people you know can piece you back together.

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We were there, together, and in the next room I could hear that monitor beeping. Keeping track of another heart’s beat and giving enduring, solid proo...more

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Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.

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It’s funny how one summer can change everything. It must be something about the heat and the smell of chlorine, fresh-cut grass and honeysuckle, aspha...more

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But I knew what it said. That I could be imperfect, but only so much. Human, but only within limits. And honest, to her or to myself, never.

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The silence wasn't like the ones I'd known lately, though; it wasn't empty so much as chosen. There's an entirely different feel to quiet when you're ...more

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Oh for God's sake,' Heather said, 'I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and get it over with.

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Two a.m.' He swallowed, then said, "You know. The person you can call at two a.m. and, no matter what, you can count on them. Even if they're asleep o...more

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He thought about this for a second. "True. But if you never really make friends, you probably don't have anyone to be your 2 a.m. Which would kind of ...more

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You want to take me to a movie?" I asked. "Well, not really," he said. "What I really want is for you to be my girlfriend. But I thought saying that m...more