“Right now we're both yard sales of emotions. A penny for pain. A dime for bitterness. A quarter for grief. A dollar for silence. It binds us together, but I don't want him to pay the price for the parts of me that are used and broken.”
“Every song deserves lyrics. Deserves a story to tell.”
“Bravery comes one day at a time.”
“I'd like to hold you in the mountains, like to kiss you by the sea. Take you far, far from here to a place where you feel free. Cause we are safe, we are true, we are going to make it through. Crashing worlds, falling stars, breaking all of who we are- I want infinity with you.”
“He's opening a door, but he already knows I won't walk through. The power of Bodee is in the way he reads me, sees through me, and then understands the truth behind the facade. He's the guy who can walk straight through the House of Mirrors on the first try. It's almost annoying. No one should ride tragedy like a pro surfer while I drown.”
“But today is better than yesterday. And this hurt is still a hole in me, but it's a shrinking hole.”
“Love in pencil is safer than love in life.”
“And more than that, Bodee left me with hope. For love. For wanting someone to touch me again and to lie with me without fear as my first response. Because Bodee slept in his sneakers, because Bodee asked for a kiss instead of just taking it, and because he kept space between us. He danced with two fingers until I asked for three or four... and his hand on my hip.
I know we're both still broken. Both of us. But Bodee's got the glue to make us whole.
He is love.”
“If he were to put his heart in my hand, he might never find it again. And I'm not cruel enough to let him break while he tries to heal the impossible.”
“Alone.
Before this crowd.
Alone, in this terrible dream.
Who am I in this visible silence?
Can they hear me scream?”
“I won't let anyone hurt you."
If a heart can smile, mine does.
"Bodee, thanks," I say, though I know he doesn't need it. "I'm sorry you lost her."
"At least I found you," he says.”
“There are no words to this music, and that makes me sad. Every song deserves lyrics. Deserves a story to tell.”
“He doesn't talk. Except to me. Doesn't smile. Except for me. Doesn't go to dances. Except for me. This is the refrain of our song. He's different with me, and yet I know this is the real Bodee. He's not pretending anymore.”
“Vibrant eyes, chocolate brown, kind. The mosaic of Bodee Lennox.”
“I know these two weeks have been God walking right into my life like he has flesh and Kool-Aid coloured hair. The gospel according to Bodee Lennox. His safety. His protection. And love.”
“ Your hurt is not an excuse to take.
Your loneliness is not an excuse to cheat.
Your desire is not a reason to rape.
You raped me, and now, I'm going to rape you. ”
“Dance to forget yourself.
Dance to forgive
Let your body and your mind agree
If only for this breathe right now
Dance like you're free”
“One corner of Bodee's mouth moves. There's neither a smile nor a frown on his face, but I understand. Without words, he's telling me not to worry. He'll make certain I get home safely tonight.”
“Lex, this'll sound weird, but when I was a kid I believed in monsters. You know, like vampires. Werewolves. Ghosts. And I believed in them because I knew at least one other monster existed. He wore a shirt with his name stitched across the pocket. And carried a fifth for a weapon.”
“So Bodee is a friend, I say firmly, a best friend. My honesty with the girl surprises me. But Bodee is right where I love him, in the room down the hall up the stairs from mine. Dinner instead of a dinner date. A hand to hold instead of lips to kiss. He’s my fort, my sanctuary. And I won’t do anything to jeopardize this.”
“Because Bodee pulls back when other guys his age rush forward. Because his two fingers on my hips while we're dancing and swaying to slow songs don't threaten me.”
“I'll make you a promise, Bodee. Long as you're with my family, you won't run out of Kool-Aid." "And I promise you, I'll stop whoever's hurting you...even if it's you.”
“It's as if he wants me to say he could have stopped his dad, so he's handing me a whip to beat him. But I won't, because I'm glad he hid. Glad he's beside me instead of six feet under.”
“This morning the secret has claws. And it's climbing the walls of my stomach, twisting my gut, quivering and rolling and burning. Red-hot acid in the back of my throat. Ready to explode.”
“All in all. You have been. Redeemer. Pain Steeler. My best friend. Please hold my hand.”
“Whenever I'm with Bodee, it feels as if I'm made of glass. Mascara, blush, and fake smiles never fool him. Maybe it comes from years seeing his mother hide her fears from the world. But I'm not ready to share.”
“Don't you ever touch her again," Bodee says. There must be muscles in his arms where before I thought there was only T-shirt. But it's not those muscles that pin Hayden against the ground: it's the white-hot fury that's as visible as Hayden's grimace.”
“Funny how people value eyes, when really, their colors are super limited. I doubt anyone would enjoy a new box of crayons if they came only in eye-color shades.”
“I know your story.
Got one of my own.
Yeah, I know lonely and alone.
Happen in a crowd, happen in a kiss.
But I know how to change all this.”
“I like him."
"Like or like?
"Oh, there's a difference?”
“The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes.”
“And here is a doctrine at which you will laugh. It seems to me, Govinda, that love is the most important thing in the world.”
“Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes,thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them - while you'd give a year of my life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear. They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors - hatred? no, not hatred, but boredom - the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don't respect? Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?"
"I've felt it all my life," she said.”
“... he who's down one day can be up the next, unless he really wants to stay in bed, that is...”
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