“This is beautiful," I said, ignoring the shop window to trace the gleaming stone walls fronting another boutique."You know what's funny?" Jacob asked. He didn't wait for my answer. "You can see beauty in everything, except for yourself."***I swallowed hard. Erik thought my body was beautiful, Karin that it was enviable. At random times, people had noted that my hands were beautiful, or my hair. The Twisted Sisters had called my art beautiful. Mom had the best intentions and always told me before and after my laser surgeries that I would be beautiful. But no one had ever said that I was beautiful, all my parts taken together, not just the bits and pieces.”
Justina Chen“I didn't know that the world could be so mind-blowingly beautiful.”
Justina Chen“He knew me in all the ways that truly mattered: the shape of my fears, the contours of my dreams.”
Justina Chen“The pressure of his touch through my jacket and my sweater was more assurance than any promise ever made to me. It was a touch that said, I have your back and I am here for you. If a girl wasn't careful, she could fall in love with a touch like that.”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists who make people stop and think, who push the form, who make you uncomfortable, who are laughable, well, they're the ones who get remembered." Idly, Jacob dug a hole in the snow with his shovel and then another one next to it. "So why wouldn't you want to join the ranks of the ridiculed?”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“Safe, I decided, didn't leave much room for fun.”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“Getting lost is just another way of saying 'going exploring.”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“North-ish." A pause, and then: "Is that Terra for I'm lost-ish?”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“Progress is hard on history.”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“Jacob: "Let her stare."Terra: "What?"Jacob: "Yeah most of the starers are just curious. Smile back. That's what I used to do.”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful“Hey, if it's a good philosophy, it works. Death is imminent. Live every day like it's your last.”
Justina Chen, North of Beautiful