“My world slowed and I closed my eyes. “I am going to give you my heart now,” I whispered. “Please don’t break it again.”
“If I could touch anything in the world right now, it would be your heart. I want to take that piece of you and keep it with me.”
“You want me to have feelings?" he said. "I already told you that I love you. What else should I say? That I long to be near you every second of every day? I see colors, only around you....I smell perfume, only around you. God, it's like...like I'm alive again. Sometimes I go crazy just wondering if I imagined it all, and I wait to see when it...you...will be taken away from me."
"I feel all these things, Abbey," he continued on. "Rage that I can't run my fingers through your hair. Sorrow that I can't lay my face next to yours. Agony that I can't steal the breath from your lips. I can't eat or breathe or sleep for wanting to touch you, and yet I don't eat or breathe or sleep. I'm just here. Stuck in between.”
“Funyuns make you fart," Caspian said, and I explode in laughter. "Funyuns give you bad breath too. Not very attractive to the ladies." He paused. "On second thought, enjoy your Funyuns, Ben!”
“I slammed the back door shut and gave Caspian a look.
He put both hands up in the air, "What? I didn't do anything."
"No. But you wanted to. And besides, we don't really know yet what can you do."
"Well, I know I can't make people disappear," he muttered darkly "or else he would have been gone a half an hour ago"
I was shocked at how serious he sounded, and then I looked into his eyes, "You're jealous!"
"He wanted to kiss you!"
Now I was dumbfounded, "How do you know that?"
"Because," he said, running a hand through his hair and pushing it back "It's what I'd want to do”
“I am going to give you my heart now," I whispered. "Please don't break it again.”
“if all i have to do to get a smile like that is read your books, then i promise to read one everyday”
“He stopped an inch away from me. I felt like I was his prisoner.
"Let's go back to the sexy and hot thing," Caspian said, "Could we add a gorgeous or mysterious in there, too?”
“It's exhilarating, Abbey. You exhilarate me"
-Caspian”
“Caspian sat there with me until my sobs died down to a slow hiccup.
Then he whispered, "I'd hold your hand right now if I could."
His eyes were so wide and earnest that I couldn't help but smile at him.
"Thanks," I said, trying to hold back more tears. "It's the thought that counts.”
“I don't say this to hurt you, love." The endearment slipped out without me even thinking about it.
(...)
"Say it again," he said. "Call me your love.”
“He leaned closer. “That’s what I’m trying to do. Your face is absolutely adorable when you blush.”
My ears burned. Oh great, am I the color of a tomato now?
“Yeah, well, I can make you blush,” I retorted. “By telling you how hot you are, and that when that little piece of black hair falls into your eyes, it’s so sexy it makes me forget my words, and...” I stopped, suddenly aware of how warm the mausoleum was.
“Go on,” Caspian prodded, shaking his head so that his hair covered one green eye. I blushed again, and glanced around me, slowly backing away from him. I just needed some... space to clear my head. He followed me, stalking my every move. My blood felt like pure oxygen racing through my veins, fizzy and bubbling and making me want to float away. A hard wall at my back stopped me, but Caspian kept coming. I thought desperately of some way to change the subject.
“I got you Moby-Dick,” I blurted out. He gave me a sly smile.
“Mmmm, did you? How... interesting.”
“And Treasure Island, and The Count of Monte Cristo.” I babbled on. “I thought you might like some boy books.” He stopped an inch away from me. I felt like I was his prisoner.
“Let’s go back to the sexy and hot thing,” Caspian said. “Could we add a gorgeous or mysterious in there, too?”
I gulped. “Like you don’t already know you’re all of those things. You probably had girls falling all over you before.”
Caspian cocked his head to one side. “True. But I always thought it was because I was the quiet new guy. And besides, there’s only one person I was ever really interested in.”
“Was?” I squeaked. Then I cleared my throat and tried again. “I mean—”
“Am,” Caspian corrected himself. “Technically, I guess it’s both. I was interested the first day I saw her, and I still am interested in her.”
His eyes glowed in the soft candlelight around us, and every last ounce of coherent thought left me.
“It’s... um... really. It’s...” My head felt like it was thickening and my body was overheating, every word dragged from somewhere in the depths of my fuzzy brain.
I waved a hand in front of my face to fan myself, and finally spit out what I was trying to say. “It’s hot in here. Don’t you think? It’s really warm.”
“I only feel warmth when I’m standing next to you,” Caspian said. He stepped half an inch closer. “Like right now.”
“I got a head start and ws already hanging upside down when he caught up. All the blood was rushing to my head, making me feel dizzy. "I can't stay like this much longer," I told him."Head rush."
He leaned down and stuck his face next to mine, gifting me with a beautiful smile."I know the feeling," he said. "You give me a head rush all the time.”
“Funyuns make you fart," Caspian said, and I exploded in laughter.
"What's so funny?" Ben asked.
I tried to stop laughing, but Caspian was leaning forward now, his face stck right in between us. "Funyuns give you bad breath, too. Not very attractive to the ladies." He paused. "ON second thought... enjoy your Funyuns, Ben!"
I had to bite the side of my cheek to keep from giggling. The fact that Ben had no clue what was going on made it even harder to stop.”
“I guess I'm the perfect match, then, for a girl who likes to visit a cemetery." He drew out every syllable so that it sounded like a love song.
I closed my eyes, savoring those words. "A perfect match," I murmured. "My other half.”
“Careful, Abbey," Caspian warned. "Don't get too close."
"He killed her, Caspian! He was the reason she was at the bridge that night."
"I know but--"
Vincent suddenly turned to face Caspian. "Could you just shut up? All this back and forht is really confusing. I'll get to you in a minute."
Caspian's jaw dropped.
So did mine.
"You can see him?" I asked. "Who are you?"
"Not who," Vincent said, a tone of sheer entitlement in his voice. "What.”
“I'm your other half. (...) I'll carry your heartbeat in mine.”
“Every things fuzzy now,but I try to stay awake long enough to tell him one more thing.
"glad you . . .see. . .my colors caspian."
" me too abbey," he said softly. "sweet dreams.”
“Since you can't touch me, you made something that could, didn't you?" I said.
"Yes."
My world slowed and I closed my eyes. "I am going yo give you my heart noe," I whispered. "Please don't break it again.”
“And if sometimes, late at night in bed, I questioned whether or not I truly was insane, I told myself that it didn't matter. I was too happy to care.”
“Caspian looked angry. “Did you ever think that things might have changed? We don’t live and die by the sword anymore. I may not have a lifetime of darkness to atone for. Maybe I just need her to be the star in my night sky. To hold back the darkness and to let me see the light.” He looked at me then, and my throat went dry. “Or maybe it really is as simple as something in her fills the hollow in me. The black void disappears when we are together.”
“I am going to give you my heart now,... Please don't break it again.”
“What right have we to believe Nature under any obligation to do her work by means of complete minds only? She may find an incomplete mind a more suitable instrument for a particular purpose.”
“we live with those retrievals from childhood that coalesce and echo throughout our lives”
“Even in shabbiness there was room for pride.”
“I like the way he looks at me, like I am a wood nymph that he happened upon one day and just had to take home to keep.”
“Then, having thus made the Creator responsible for all those pains and diseases and miseries above enumerated, and which he could have prevented, the gifted Christian blandly calls him Our Father!
It is as I tell you. He equips the Creator with every trait that goes to the making of a fiend, and then arrives at the conclusion that a fiend and a father are the same thing! Yet he would deny that a malevolent lunatic and a Sunday school superintendent are essentially the same.”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.