“There are edges around the black and every now and then a flash of color streaks out of the gray. But I can never really grasp any of the slivers of memories that emerge.”

“Anyone who ever makes you the slightest bit uncomfortable, Breanna, you tell one of us. You're with Razor, which means you're family.”

“The worst kind of crying wasn't the kind everyone could see- the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it.”

“I must have killed a lot of cows in a past life for Karma to hate me this much.”

“I love you enough to never make you choose.”

“I wrote about the person I love most, my older brother, Noah. We don't live together so I wrote what I imagine he does when we're not together.""And what is that?" prodded the stout man. "He's a superhero who saves people in danger, because he saved me and my brother from dying in a fire a couple of years ago. Noah is better than Batman." The crowd chuckled. "I love you, too, lil'bro.”

“Noah drew me closer to him. "It's okay. I've got you.”

“Noah?"A welcome voice - not my mother's, but welcome all the same: Echo. A smile spread across my face. This was too good. Me in a towel, alone in the house with my nymph. I left the bathroom.”

“Please, Noah, I don't want to do this wrong. Tell me how to make you feel good."He shifted so that his body rested beside mine, his leg and arm still draped over me. I felt small under his warmth and strength. His chocolate-brown eyes softened. "Being with you feels good. Touching you-" he tucked a curl behind my ear. "-feels good. I have never wanted anyone like I want you. There's nothing you can do wrong when just breathing makes everything right.”

“I'm right and wrong, moral and immoral, good and bad, a hero and a villain, and I've been just as capable of truth as I have been lies.”

“Normal. She wanted normal and so did I. "You know what's normal?""What?" She wiped away her remaining tears. "Calculus.”