Well, then, Otter, of course I don’t like Bundt cake. It has eggs in it. Baby chicken eggs. You don’t see chickens standing outside of maternity wards waiting to get our babies to make their...

The bastard. How dare he? I was drowning in a fucking river that he was still attempting to save me from, and he was telling me he was going to push me back in and...

You and I want different things. It’s not me, it’s you.

How do you say what’s in your heart if your heart is something you haven’t known for years? How do you give yourself completely when all you’ve done is bury yourself in grief? How do...

So while I drove my little and planned his fantasy night of how I was going to give Otter the key to my soul (his words, not mine), I silently panicked and wrote lines of...

It was as if God himself saw that my intention was to make my outer self match my inner fabulosity and didn’t think the world could handle such an explosion of amazingness. So instead of...

I can’t do it. I can’t get into a philosophical debate with an archangel, knowing how ridiculous it is and how unprepared I am.

You can’t just wipe away your history.

Creed scowls. “Hardly. All he does now is mope like a goddamn teenage girl. Anytime I’m home, he’s in his room with the door locked. I’m telling you guys, he got worked over really bad...

…Ty grabbed my phone and threatened to tell Otter that I liked being spanked during sex.This proceeded to lead up on a long tangent where I had to have him explain to me how he...

I watched the black ocean in his eyes and saw this flash behind them and understood what he had meant the night before, about the insanity that had gripped him. He was not so far...

Otter! Otter! Otter!Don’t lead cows to slaughter!I love you, and I knowI should’ve told you soon-aBut you didn’t buy the dolphin-safe tuna!

It was just me and him, there in that place where tragedy had happened, where I thought my life had ended. But somehow, he made it seem like a home again. Somehow, he gave it...

The big kid hasn’t said anything yet. ‘I do like hearing myself talk,’ I say, ‘only because I have a lot of neat things to say, but eventually the conversation will run out in, like,...

Seven smirked as he walked back over to me. “I gave you catharsis last night. Twice.

It doesn’t matter. I’ve moved on from something that was never there to begin with. That’s one of the dire things about escaping from childhood. Eventually you grow up and realize the things you wanted...

I don’t know if I could deal with a two-armed kid, and now I have to have a kid with only one arm because he wanted to try and feed the gorilla cotton candy? I...

‘The image of you putting a condom on a banana to teach me about gay sex is forever ingrained in my head.’ ‘Well, a good father teaches his son about the facts of life.’ ‘You...

And if there is one last thing I would have you know before we reach these final pages, it’s that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we want it to...

I think I could wait for you forever.

And I wished I could believe him. I wished with all that I had. And when you’re eleven, you’re on the cusp between still believing wishing worked if you wanted something hard enough and understanding...

‘But even I know that in your line of work, there’s a difference between being a volunteer and being volun-told.’

I keep myself busy with things to do but every time I pause I think of you.

He hesitates, then says, “You don’t think Otter… gets offended by what I say?” He begins to speak faster. “I mean, I don’t care who Otter sleeps with. I don’t care that he’s a fa-...

Michael doesn’t flinch. ‘You can’t know,’ he says quietly, ‘how much you truly love something until it’s gone.’ ‘That’s not fair,’ I say as I tremble. ‘No one said it would be. He tests you,...