Autumn Doughton

In my defense, the Easter Bunny is the weakest link in magical lore. I mean, you have to admit that the whole thing is ridiculous. A giant rodent who sneaks into people's homes at night to leave eggs filled with candy? How in the world is that symbolic of the Easter celebration?

Maybe the problem with lying is that once you start faking it, it's impossible to tell where the make-believe you ends and the real you begins. It's hard to be who you are, but it's even harder to keep up the lie.

I can barely breathe but I think that his lips might be better than oxygen at the moment.

All we get are moments, Cole. One at a time, like heartbeats. Once all of them is gone, that__ it. No do-overs. No repeats. Every moment possesses its down kind of magic and what we do with it counts. It counts.

But I broke your heart,_ she whispers. I shrug and kiss her again. __ou break it, you buy it.

I have a theory that the world is broken up into two kinds of people.""Yeah?""Yep. On the one side are the people who love the Harry Pottery books and wish that they could attend Hogwarts and have Ron and Hermione for best friends and vanquish Death Eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."She's smiling at me, and she's just so fucking cute. I have to ask: "And the other side?"Aimee shrugs. "Douchebags.

It__ hard to say how it happens. How all of the bits of me _ even the broken ones _ start to tumble. I think it__ my toes that go first. Next _ my legs and the hallow spaces behind my ribs. And then my arms all the way down through my wrist bones to the tips of my fingers. My lips part and I realize that this is what it feels like to fall.

When he touches me, the sky and the earth switch places.

Did you ever think that maybe we__e like that?_ she asks me.I smile into the dark. How many times have I thought of myself as the ocean? __ou think we__e like water?__emma sits up. The salty wind coming off the water snaps her hair around her shoulders. With one hand in the middle of my chest, she tries to push me into the sand. I__ strong enough to hold her off, but I don__ want to. I willingly collapse back and she crawls over me. Holding a smile on her face, she slips her legs on either side of my hips and settles her weight on me.In a voice thin as smoke, she says, __ell, maybe that__ how we start. Maybe, in the beginning, we__e nothing but a theoretical vast and empty sea with this huge open sky above us.__er hands press down on my stomach and her fingers pull at the bottom of my shirt. She leans forward until her breasts are rubbing against me and her mouth is almost touching the skin of my neck.__hen slowly,_ she continues, __ver time, the currents change and we build up these continents inside our bodies._ Now her fingers walk a path from my bellybutton to my sternum. __nd eventually, we have canyons and deserts and trees and beaches and all sorts of places where we can go and live.__ suck in a breath as Gemma flattens her hand on the skin just above my heart and kisses me just below my ear. Then she turns her face, fitting the crown of her head beneath my jaw and says, __ost of the time we__e safe on the land, but sometimes we get sucked out to sea. What do you think happens then?__ think about everything we__e shared today. I think about Gemma and me. And how it feels like the geography inside of my own body is changing, how it__ been changing from the moment I met her. Maybe even before that.And I think about the continents we__e building between us. The bridges of land moving from her fingers to mine and the valleys and mountains formed by her lips on my skin and her words in my head.I use both of my hands to cup her face and pull her to my mouth. I press my lips to hers, parting her mouth and drinking in her breath. __ think you__ have to start swimming.__ minute of silence ticks by.Over the low drone of the waves on the beach, she whispers, __nd what if you can__ swim very well?__ think for a minute. __hen you fly.

Okay. Scrabble, donuts, flowers, corndogs, pre-pubescent British wizards and indie music. Am I missing anything important?__he__ still blushing and it__ like the heat in her face is trapping all the words inside of her. __hat is it?_ I ask, an involuntary grin tugging on my mouth. I love it when she blushes like this.Amy sighs, looks up toward the chandelier, __ou, Cole. I like you.

Loving her is strange and confusing and damn risky. And if I had the chance I'd choose it all over again.

I'm being fair, it was the best kiss of my life- a kiss that finds all your seams and pulls them apart, stitch by detail stitch.

...people called it justice, but prison doesn't make everything better," he observes. "Just because someone pays a price doesn't mean they didn't steal from you to begin with.

You dump trash. You dump yard waste and old ripped couches that smell like body odor and forgetfulness. You dump cigarette butts and banana peels and hazardous waste. But people?