Swear on This Life

Isn’t it weird that we had nothing at the time … but somehow it felt like we had everything.

We can’t always control our circumstances, who our parents are, where we live, or how much money we make, but in those rare moments when we can shape our fate, when we do have the power to make our own happiness, we can’t be too scared to do it.

It’s impossible to really hate someone if you don’t love them at least a little.

In real life we have a hard time recognizing serendipitous moments because we’re not making the story up as we go along. It’s not a lie—it’s really happening to us, and we have no idea how it will end. Some of us will look back on our lives and recall events that were a bit too perfect, but until you know the whole story, it’s impossible to see the universe at work, or even admit that there is something bigger than us, making sure everything that should happen does happen. If you can surrender to the idea that there might be a plan, instead of reducing every magical moment to a coincidence, then love will find you.

It’s like reading a good book. The kind where you don’t want to skip pages to see what happens at the end. Each moment is a story in itself.

I thought loving someone meant letting go, but by the time I learned that loving someone means fighting for them too, it was too late.

This could be the best thing for us, after it stops being the worst.

We can’t go backward. There are too many regrets. Please just move forward with me?

For my Em. Don’t wait this long. Come let me love you.

Our story is great. Maybe not all the other shit, but the story of us is perfect, Em.

the past would only fester and eat away at us if we tried to hold on to it too tightly.

I love you, Emiline. I loved you before I even knew what it meant.

You’re my best friend.” I said to him. “I’m so in love with you.” His eyes were pleading.

Jason Dean Colbertson, how’d you get so great?” There was silence. He kept his eyes closed and said, “You made me this way, Em.

Having a bunch of shitty adults constantly letting you down really kills a kid's view of the world.

You’re all I have left. You’re holding my whole world together, Em.

There was nothing we could do; we were just a couple of powerless, poor kids, so desperate to find a way to be together.

I love you, Emiline. I loved you before I even knew what it meant.” “I love you too, Jase…I’ll love you forever.” “Swear to me.” “I swear I want this.” He was staring right into my eyes. “Swear that you love me and trust me,” he said. I knew the feeling like my own name. “Jase…” I swallowed and then tears filled my eyes. “I swear to god on your life and my own that I love you and trust you.” And that I’ll love you forever.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we were lovesick. Our innocence was beautiful, impossible to capture again, impossible to re-create.

If you can surrender to the idea that there might be a plan, instead of reducing every magical moment to a coincidence, then love will find you.

It was about you... what I wrote. It was all about you." His bottom lip began to quiver. "I know," I said, my voice shaky. I started to cry then. There was no holding back. "I loved it, every word. It was so beautiful.

Sometimes people who love us make us do hard things because it’s what’s right.

I don’t know much about fate, but I know something brought me back there. Maybe I fought that force for too long, or maybe everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to. The

We can't always control our circumstances, who are parents are, where we live, or how much money we make, but in those rare moments when we can shape our fate, when we do have the power to make our own happiness, we can't be too scared to do it.

he looked up through the passenger window, kissed his hand, and waved. I did the same.

I turned toward her with red, puffy eyes. Her own eyes widened with concern, and she froze as she watched me walk into the kitchen, like she was waiting for me to crumple onto the floor and shatter into pieces. “I’m fine,” I said. “It’s an emotional book. I’m just getting a glass of water.” I reached for the tequila. She got up and followed me into the kitchen. “That’s not water.” “And?” “It’s ten a.m.” “And?” “You look like you’ve been crying for an hour straight . . . and you’re hitting the hard stuff at—and I repeat—ten a.m.” “Cara, you have the most amazing powers of perception.” I looked at the bottle in one hand and the glass in the other, shrugged, set the glass down, and headed back to my room with the bottle only. “I’m worried about you,” Cara called out as I walked away. “I’m fine. Just gonna sit in here, read, and have myself a little mental health day.” I turned and smiled and then locked myself in my room. “Mental health days don’t usually involve tequila at ten a.m.!” she yelled through the door. “I’m fine!

Jackson leaned down and pecked me on the lips. “’Bye, Em.” I grabbed his face and leaned in close to his ear. “Love you.” I’ll always have trouble remembering the first time we said, I love you, because by the time we said it freely, we had been feeling it for years. It was as natural as saying, See you later. “Love you,” he said, before turning and leaving a captivated Sophia and a longing Emerson behind on the library steps. “Oh my god, he’s such a dreamboat.” I laughed. “People don’t use that expression anymore, Sophie. That was, like, way before your time.” “I know, but I like it and it suits him.” “Yeah, you’re right, it does. Come on, let’s get some books.