young-adult-nonfiction

Gunner shook his head; he wasn't in the mood. He stared down at his bottle as he spoke. "Yeah, and what if I do go after it and what if I find no one, and I'm alone for the next sixty years? What then? Huh? Friends and family will get married. I'll be stuck buying gifts. Years pass: children, birthday parties. At dinner parties, I'll be odd man out, forcing people to arrange five chairs around a table instead of four or six. Or, okay, let's say maybe twenty years down the line I meet someone nice and I've already given up on ever finding true love. Let's say the girl is a few pounds overweight, has fizzy hair and an annoying laugh, but at this point, I'm also a few pounds overweight and my hair is thinning and my laughter is annoying. Maybe then the two of us get married, and both our groups of friends will say, 'See I told you that you'd find true love. It just took a while.' And we'll smile, but we'll both know it's a lie--

I__e never been with a boy who hasn__ seen me naked. It__ always the squeaky futon, bear-it-all, turn-off-the-lights quickstep. Don__ chalk it up to __addy issues.__aybe I__ sick of keeping private parts private. I don__ want rainwater secrets on my lips, tasting of __on__ make too much noise_. October__ dust in my lungs, maybe I don__ want bits of four AM lingering in my subconscious. Smokers breathe in fire, coat their insides in ash. Is that suicide or arson? Listen to me, listen to me. I__ alive. I__ ALIVE.I__ naked and bruised, but I__ alive. I__ not a piece of fruit. Don__ press into my flesh, looking for soft spots. My whole body is tender and rotten, but I__ alive.I__ alive and just because you can see it all, doesn__ mean you know it all

We are paint streaked runners,deafened by the cries of all the sad people. It's a powerful sound that practically yanks the tears right out of you. Sometimes, you just can't help but feel like a very smallclam ina verybig ocean.