Save the Date

J.J. scoffed. But just as he’d done ever since he’d read this phrase when he was twelve, he said the word “scoff” instead of just making the sound, and none of us had been able to convince him this actually wasn’t correct.

Because, it would have been cheating, in a way. You don't get to freeze the picture when you want it. It would have been living in the past and eventually, you just start doing the same jokes over and over again.

It seemed like the second you tried to tell someone why you loved someone else, it took the luster off it, like pinning a butterfly down in a case—it never quite captured it.

I looked at my brothers, and Linnie, and Rodney, and felt something within me that had been clenched tight start to loosen a little. So maybe I wasn't just the youngest, the one who didn't get told things. I was also the one who came to help, who tried to make things work, who they called when they were in trouble.

If you don’t move on from the past, you’re going to miss out on some really amazing stuff in the future.

She didn't know what it was like to look and wish and want, always two steps behind the person, always on the edges of their life. What it was like to stand next to someone and know you weren't registering with them, not in any meaningful way. That you thought about someone a thousand times more than they'd ever thought about you. To know that you were just a face in the crowd scenes while they were center stage.

Girls?" I heard my dad's voice—from the sound of it, he was on the landing. "Yeah?" we both called back in unison. "Uh—there's someone named Ralph downstairs who claims he's here to marry Linnie." Linnie shot me an exasperated look, and I clapped my hand over my mouth, trying not to burst out laughing. "He's going to marry her to Rodney," I called. "He's a judge." "Ah," my dad said. "Well, that makes more sense. I was worried there was going to have to be a duel or something.

You’re not going to get away with this,” she said darkly, shaking her head at me. “I will not stand for it.” I just stared at her, wondering if all the people trying to build up self-esteem in middle schoolers had actually gone too far.

How was it that you only fully realised what you had when it was gone? And I knew there would be new friends, new experiences, maybe even amazing adventures ahead of me. But I felt like I needed, for just a moment, to appreciate what I was – what we all were – leaving behind.

He’s not a bad person. He’s not. He’s just a guy. He’s just…human.

You don’t like to see things end. But if you don’t…” “What?” “You miss so much. And sometimes the harder to try to hang on to something, the less you can see that.

Danny was his own flawed person, as much as I might have wanted to keep him in one box and keep everything simple and neat. He was just more complicated than that. Life was more complicated than that.

It’ll be all right.” “Do you really believe that?” “It’s what you’re supposed to say.

Why had I never thought about how intimate it was, just sleeping in the same room with someone? Because it really was – it was how I knew Siobhan talked in her sleep, and occasionally sang, and that Linnie stole every blanket she saw and then denied it with a straight face in the morning. When you were asleep, you were who you were, not who you were pretending to be, and now I was going to be doing that with Bill, with someone I’d just met that morning.

Yep. I just had a question for you. Your name is what, again?” “J.J., you know my name,” the guy said, now speaking more slowly. “You called me, remember?” “I know, I just needed to check something. If you could just tell me your name. Your full name.” I met Danny’s eye two seats down from me. He shook his head and then gave me a half shrug and eye roll combo, a series of tiny, quick gestures that I could nonetheless understand perfectly: No, I have no idea what he’s doing. But really, what did we expect? “Uh,” the guy on the other end said. “It’s Billiam. Billiam Kirby.” “Billiam!” J.J. said triumphantly, raising the phone above his head. “See? Did I tell you? Did I tell you?” Most of the guests just stared blankly back at him while my dad gave him the hand-across-the-throat gesture that in our family had always meant shut it down. “No way,” Rodney muttered, reaching for his wallet. “Dammit.” Danny sighed, tossing his napkin onto the table. “I owe him twenty-five bucks.” “He got me for fifty,” Rodney said, shaking his head.

Do you know how long I was waiting at the airport? Assuming someone in my family would come and get me? Looking at all the cars driving past, and none of them for me?” - J.J. “Uh . . . ,” Rodney said. “Did you tell anyone to pick you up at the airport?” “Of course I did!” J.J. exploded. “Do you think I would have just . . . just . . .” He trailed off, his expression changing from angry to thoughtful. “Actually, let me check one thing,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through it. “Huh,” he said after a moment. “You know, looks like that e-mail never made it out of drafts. Whoopsie.” He put his phone back in his pocket. “So hi!” He strode over to us, now smiling. “How’s it going, family?

It was our song in high school." Linnie muttered, batting her veil away and glaring at Olly. "Is this yacht rock?" Mike asked, sounding appalled. "Who is this, Air Supply?