You used to talk to me like I was the only one around

But the fact that I was angry and scared, that was my secret to keep. They didn't get to have that, too. It was all mine.

But when you're alone in the world, really alone, you have no choice but to be open to suggestions.

This life was fleeting, and I was still searching for the way I wanted to spend it that would make me happy, full, okay again.

It's all in the view. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.

You know how I stay sane through the weeks of not seeing you? I think about the day we met, how there was one comment - one beginning of a conversation - we looked up at each other, and we just knew. We hid it from each other, of course. But we connected like I've never connected with anyone before. All it took was that one shift together and I never wanted to be without you again. Every time you looked at me it felt like you could see right through me. Like you got me. We were on the same wavelength and it was scary, sure, but it was beyond amazing too. So when I'm in my darkest hour, tossing and turning in my bed, I think of that first day together - the beginning of us. I love you.

*mine*

Here was a boy who liked flaws, who saw them not as failings but as strengths. Who knew such a person could even exist?

He was the one person I could count on, unequivocally, to say exactly what he meant, no hedging around. He has no idea, I was sure, how much I appreciated it.

You don't need anything. Not a girlfriend, not a friend. You were always so clear about that. And that's what you got. So why are you surprised now?

Through my tears, I could hear her saying it was all going to be okay, and I knew she believed this. But I was sure of something too; it's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching, and rarely discovered - so many locks, not enough keys.

Right now I want a word that describes the feeling you get - a cold, sick feeling deep down inside - when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don't want it to, but you can't stop it. And you know, for the first time, for the very first time, that there will now be a before and an after; a was and a will be. And that you will never again be quite the same person you were.