Volition

I will not light myself on fire to keep you warm.

You have a heart and you have a soul and you have me. You’re not as awful as you think you are. You’re just not the same as everyone else.

You left pieces of your soul inside me.

I’m about as perfect as a shattered mirror,

All I knew was that I couldn't have him right now. It was impossible. Could I have him in a year? Two years? Five years? Ten years? I didn't know. All I knew was that although the universe was pushing us together, it was also pushing us apart.

I'm free now instead of the caged wraith I was then. I know how to embrace my dark side, but it won't consume me. I know where I'm going because of where I've been.

Be with someone who is going to ruin your lipstick, not your mascara. So, suck it up, dry your tears, and say yes to the rest of your life.

They say scars don’t hurt, but that’s a lie. I’m not sure what hurts worse—the ones you can see or the ones so far beneath that they’ll never really heal.

I'm so stupid," I tell her, tears streaming down my face now, blocking my vision. "You're not stupid. You're just an emotional vampire.

You have a heart and you have a soul and you have me. You're not as awful as you think you are. You're just not the same as everyone else.

They say that you and your soul mate have a string connecting your hearts—not a literal string, but an invisible one.

No one has hit me. My body is fine. It’s my soul that aches. It’s always been my soul.

I was always going to do terrible things because it was in my nature.

I hate this version of myself because although I think I have all the power, I have none. I am not rational here.

There is something. To say there’s nothing is like ignoring the fact that a fire crackles and emits heat. That’s what we do. We crackle. We pop.

Roots. I have roots. It both thrills me and kills me that these roots might become a sapling—or God forbid, an entire tree.

I didn’t know why I even tried to walk away from him because the invisible grappling hooks that spread from his soul to mine wouldn’t let me get far.

I resented death because death had rejected me.

Ah,” he says, “a burnt child loves the fire

Did you just compare our relationship to the plague?

THERE’S A CERTAIN beauty in sleeping beside another person. You’re in their space, and they’re in yours, and you’re both at your most vulnerable.

You may have her bones, but I’ll always have her soul.

I desire the things that destroy me in the end,

the funny thing about perception. I will never be able to experience the words the way you will, and you’ll never see them the way I do.

The one person who would understand is the one person I can’t call. Jesse. I’ve sworn off Jesse. No good can come from him. From that. He and I are like two hurricanes colliding from separate bodies of water.

Nope, but somehow, I think I’d move bodies night and day for you, Tate McKenna.

We’re like oil and water, only someone put the oil on the bottom and then dumped the water in, so I’m forever trying to get over him while simultaneously going through him as the pieces of me try to connect on the other side.

Who drops a postcard in someone’s lap? I’m not sure who I think I am. Carmen Sandiego? That girl from Serendipity?

I've won, and Hayden is my weapon.

My heels click on the tile floor, and I feel like a velociraptor.