I wanted to close my eyes and let the silence swallow me whole.

Dad? Dad, no. No. I can’t. I can’t. Why are you saying these things?””Because I can’t stand watching all that loneliness that lives inside you.

What is this thing you call substance abuse? All I wanna do is forget and get loose.Drinking and smoking over and overWhat’s so great about a life that’s sober?There’s nothing cool about being youngWhen the...

I’m not a good kid. Yeah, look, I’m just a piece of paper with the word sad and a bunch of cuss words written on it.A lousy piece of paper. That’s me.A piece of paper...

I was ashamed of myself for being ashamed of myself. I didn’t like feeling like that.

See, the thing about that word, Sharkey, the F-word, is that sometimes I make that word do too much work. I mean, I say that word as if it clearly articulates what I’m really feeling....

I wonder if he’d been as beautiful as Dante. And I wondered why I thought that.

For the music to be over so soon. For the music to be over when it had just begun. That was really sad.

He was still experimenting with kissing girls even though he said he’d rather be kissing boys. That’s exactly what he said. I didn’t know exactly what to think about that, but Dante was going to...

Rafael?””Yeah?”„Do we all have monsters?”„Yes.”„Why does God give us so many monsters?”„You want to know my theory?”„Sure.”„I think it’s other people who give us monsters. Maybe God doesn’t have anything to do with it.

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

The heart can get really cold if all you’ve known is winter.

Words could be like food – they felt like something in your mouth. They tasted like something.

The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.

I couldn’t exactly storm away in anger. I’d just have to close my eyes and shut out the universe.

The problem with parents is that they’re adults.

Summertime. It was a song. It was a season. I wondered if that season would ever live inside of me.

Some boys… Are perfect shits. & other boys are very, very beautiful.

Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and...

I was getting an A for work. But not for talent. The story of my life.

I mean, okay, let’s say we’re all going to get better. Let’s just pretend we will. Fine. Where are we going to go after we get better? What are we going to do with all...