“This video is making me gayer out of spite,' Jules muttered, clear even from the other side of the room.”

“Then, Leo will be my friend. He will like my mind. Our brains can kiss. Even if our bodies can’t. Even if he has a girlfriend. It is an intellectual crush. Our brains can have sex. Would I have sex with him? Yes. Brain sex!!!”

“Luke laughed, "We were about to go rescue you from your captors. Pity you had to turn up so soon. I was hoping to storm the garrison gates and sally forth on horseback to carry you to safety.”

“It's not that I'm dumb to the beauty of things. I take all the beautiful things to heart, and they fuck my heart till I about die from it.”

“How could you hide from a murderer who lives under your skin?”

“When people cared about each other, they always found a way to make it work.”

“After Your Death First, I emptied the closets of your clothes, threw out the bowl of fruit, bruised from your touch, left empty the jars you bought for preserves. The next morning, birds rustled the fruit trees, and later when I twisted a ripe fig loose from its stem, I found it half eaten, the other side already rotting, or—like another I plucked and split open—being taken from the inside: a swarm of insects hollowing it. I’m too late, again, another space emptied by loss. Tomorrow, the bowl I have yet to fill.”

“You're my family! You were family before any of them. I've missed you even when I didn't remember you. Everything I've done since losing you has been about getting back to you. And I know I've left you behind before for other families, but not this time. I can't do it again.”