teen

Night has settled over Paris.The streets have cleared of the crowds, and the city has been lit up. I set my book down, deciding to go for a walk. The Eiffel Tower is only a few blocks away. Now that there aren't many people out, I can walk there without having to fight my way through mobs of gawking tourists.

He stares at me__aking me in__ith his lips slightly parted. I struggle to hold myself in place as we gawk at each other. I want so desperately to run, but something is holding me back, keeping me in place.

Normality is much less captivating than the extraordinary.

Girls," their mother interjected, "you must both stop being strange - it is unattractive. And don't forget your hats. It would be absolutely the end for me if you two came down with freckles at a time like this.

Ah, well,ʺ said Abe, idly studying his fingertips. ʺI have it on good authority thereʹs going to be a new __ateʹ opening up soon over on the south side of the wall."The truth dawned on me. ʺOh lord. Youʹre the one whoʹs been doling out C4.ʺʺYou make it sound so easy,ʺ he said with a frown. ʺThat stuffʹs hard to get a hold of.

I don't believe everything happens for a reason. But I still search for reasons anyway. It's like I don't want to admit that maybe everything really is totally random...that people are just molecules in the air, bumping into each other and floating away again."-p150, NOTES TO SELF

The stares were annoying, but I knew they didn__ mean any harm. So, every morning, smiling at them became part of my routine, too.

Em didn't truly understand about my panic attacks - no one did. But she'd never pushed me to explain, never tried to ditch me when things got weird, and never once looked at me like I was a freak.

And then Luke had appeared, like a gust that had come to teach me that in life, there was nothing more precious than life itself.

Now whenever I left class to go to the boys' room, I worried that I would end up on the blue tiled floor in a puddle of piss and blood.

I didn't come up with the lie. It wasn't mine. They handed the lie to me, and I tried like hell to make it work for a while.

They were full of suspicion and wonder, which I had grown to recognize as two very dangerous things.

People talk about books being an escape, but here on the tube, this one feels more like a lifeline...The motion of the train makes her head rattle, but her eyes lock on the words the way a figure skater might choose a focal point as she spins, and just like that, she's grounded again.

What__ going on?_ Ingrid asked. __isten, nothing bad today, please._ She pulled a chair out and sat down. Faye stared at her and said the words as quickly as she could. ____ just going to give it to you straight as I can. Mila is a witch._ Ingrid busted out with a laugh. __ wouldn__ call her that,_ she said. __hat__ a little harsh, isn__ it?_ She poured the juice into her glass and took a drink. __hat did the brat do this time?_ She set her glass down.

I__ trying to decide whether to tell you two to get a room or go barf in the trash can,_ Emma said. ____ leaning toward the second choice. You are both getting way too weird. And gross.__al barked out a laugh and slid his fingers down my arm to entwine with mine. His touch, and Emma__ comments, only made me blush more. Looks like Emma saw Cal lick my face after all. Now that wasn__ awkward or anything.

Thinking, not for the first time, that life should come with a trapdoor. Just a little exit hatch you could disappear through when you´d utterly and completely mortified yourself. Or when you had spontaneous zit eruptions.__ood book?_ he asked, taking it from her and reading the subtitle, __ Guide for Good Girls Who (Sometimes) Want to Be Bad,_ out loud.But life did not come with a trapdoor.

I'll always choose you.Gabe Willoughby

We're not words, Henry, we're people.Words are how others define us, but we can define ourselves any way we choose.