“You don't have to tell me you're fine. I'm not fine. You're not fine either. We can be honest with each other about that, can't we?' I say. The sides of her face tense as tries to stop herself from crying, but she can't.There is something about her grief that makes mine less exclusive. Less like my world isn’t the only one falling apart.”

“Can Flo come? She has so many clothes I really want her to get rid of.' I laugh. Flo's clothes are so funny. She buys one top and wears it every time we go out for six months, then buys another one and does the same. And the kinds of things she buys for school are boring. She gets things that look as close to school uniform as possible because she finds having to wear our own clothes every day so hard.”

“Nothing. That's why it's funny. It's so bad I just think it's funny,' Renee says, tilting her head back so the chips don't fall out of her mouth.‘Do you really?’‘If I don’t laugh about it what else will I do?’She doesn’t actually laugh though. She falls back, throws chips into the air and tries to catch them in her mouth”

“I scan the room for objects to hit her with. I want to hammer over the head with something, or stab her. I don’t know what stops me, but I guess that’s the difference between a good person and a murderer. The murderer doesn’t stop themselves, but that doesn’t mean good people, like me, don’t have the same thoughts sometimes.”

“You don't have to tell me you're fine. I'm not fine. You're not fine either. We can be honest with each other about that, can't we?' I say. The sides of her face tense as tries to stop herself from crying, but she can't.There is something about her grief that makes mine less exclusive. Less like my world isn’t the only one falling apart.”