Colleen Hoover

Imagine all the people you meet in your life. There are so many. They come in like waves, trickling in and out with the tide. Some waves are much bigger and make more of an impact than others. Sometimes the waves bring with them things from deep in the bottom of the sea and they leave those things tossed onto the shore. Imprints against the grains of sand that prove the waves had once been there, long after the tide recedes.That was what Atlas was telling me when he said __ love you._ He was letting me know that I was the biggest wave he__ ever come across. And I brought so much with me that my impressions would always be there, even when the tide rolled out.

You wanted to lick my face the first time you saw me? Is that usually what you do when you__e attracted to guys?_ I shake my head. __ot your face, your dimple. And no. You__e the only guy I__e ever had the urge to lick._ He smiles at me confidently. __ood. Because you__e the only girl I__e ever had the urge to love.

Naked truths aren't always pretty.

My heart made it's choice, and it chose you.

You__l never be able to find yourself if you__e lost in someone else.

But the second she opened her eyes and looked at me, I knew. She was either going to be the death of me . . . or she was going to be the one who finally brought me back to life.

There are moments in every relationship that define when two people start to fall in love.A first glanceA first smileA first kissA first fall_(I remove the Darth Vader house shoes from my satchel and look down at them.)You were wearing these during one of those moments.One of the moments I first started to fall in love with you.The way you gave me butterflies that morningHad absolutely nothing to do with anyone else,and everything to do with you.I was falling in love with you that morningbecause of you.(I take the next item out of the satchel. When I pull it out and look up, she brings her hands to her mouth in shock.)This ugly little gnomeWith his smug little grin_He's the reason I had an excuse to invite you into my house.Into my life.You took a lot of aggression out on him over those next few months.I would watch from my window as you would kick him over every time you walked by him.Poor little guy.You were so tenacious.That feisty, aggressive, strong-willed side of you_.The side of you that refused to take crap from this concrete gnome?The side of you that refused to take crap from me?I fell in love with that side of youbecause of you.(I set the gnome down on the stage and grab the CD)This is your favorite CD__ayken__ shit.__lthough now I know you intended for shit to be possessive, rather than descriptive.The banjo started playing through the speakers of your carand I immediately recognized my favorite band.Then when I realized it was your favorite band, too?The fact that these same lyrics inspired both of us?I fell in love with that about you.That had absolutely nothing to do with anyone else.I fell in love with that about youbecause of you.(I take a slip of paper out of the satchel and hold it up. When I look at her, I see Eddie slide her a napkin. I can__ tell from up here, but that can only mean she__ crying.)This is a receipt I kept.Only because the item I purchased that night was on the verge of ridiculous.Chocolate milk on the rocks? Who orders that?You were different, and you didn__ care.You were being you.A piece of me fell in love with you at that moment,because of you.This? (I hold up another sheet of paper.)This I didn__ really like so much.It__ the poem you wrote about me.The one you titled 'mean?'I don__ think I ever told you_but you made a zero.And then I kept itto remind myself of all the things I never want to be to you.(I pull her shirt from my bag. When I hold it into the light, I sigh into the microphone.)This is that ugly shirt you wear.It doesn__ really have anything to do with why I fell in love with you.I just saw it at your house and thought I__ steal it.

Should it matter what genre it is if the book is good?

I'm pretty sure my addiction to reading has just reached a whole new level.

I__ meeting the attic before I meet the girl.

What a nickname. Teenagers can be so cruel. I__ embarrassed to be one of them.

When life gets you down do you wanna know what you__e gotta do? . . . Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

I don't understand my sudden obsession with staring at her, but i can't seem to stop.

His memory is the last place i want to be. I would give anything to always be in his present.

Every incident chips away at your limit. Every time you choose to stay, it makes the next time that much harder to leave. Eventually, you lose sight of your limit altogether, because you start to think, ____e lasted five years now. What__ five more?

People don't get to choose who they fall in love with. The only get to choose who they stay in love with.

There can't be a maybe someday between us. There will never be a maybe someday.

I feel like my maybe someday just became my right now.