He broke away from my mouth and trailed his lips down the front of my throat. I felt his lips close around my scars. He kissed away their ugliness. His lips parted in tingling butterfly...

I know,” Noah said, pausing. “But I think a safety net’s no good if you aren’t trying to climb somewhere. A net can’t catch someone who never leaves the ground.

It’s not blood that makes us who we are,” Dad said. “It’s family. And it’s not blood that makes us family. It’s love.

Everything’s a painting, anyway,” Fawn said. “That’s what I think. We live inside a giant painting, only we can’t see who’s holding the paintbrush. Any time something strange happens in your life it’s because the...

I don’t like this, Toua,” I go on. “We’re like birds that have flown a very long way from their nest. We’re like nettles in a garden full of hops. We shouldn’t have to hide...

You can’t change who you are, can you? That would require changing the people who made you along the way. That would mean discrediting everything they ever gave you.

I was shaking when our lips parted and he leaned his forehead against mine, his fingers carding through my hair, my hands on his face. “I won’t let them,” Rafael said. “I won’t let anyone...

You can’t change the past, you know? You can’t change who you were, but you can change who you’re going to be.

Sometimes an adventure is a mundane thing. A trip to the shore with your best friend. Learning you can laugh in unearthly ways.