Small Change
Roan Parrish
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Tattoos are the scars you can choose.”
“There was this wall of ice between us that no amount of sunniness could melt. We had been inseparable before that. I could see him through it. The wall. He was the same as he always was. And he wanted to spend time with me the way he always had. But I was untouchable. He threw himself up against the wall over and over because he couldn't see it. But I couldn't do anything from my side except watch him pick himself up, every time a little more bruised, and do it again.”
“It’s so unfortunate the way people can never look past his truly lamentable looks to see the pure heart that beats within.” I grinned, liking him immediately. “Yeah, well I’m actually blind, so I was able to encounter him without the weight of societal constructions of beauty between us. Plus I totally believed him when he said he was super attractive.”
“Would I tell him? It was hard to know. Hard to know if in the moment it happened I would feel open to discussing it, or if I’d feel resentful or angry or hurt and so explaining it to him would be the last thing I was willing or able to do. “I’ll try,” I said.”
“Without the anger there was just fear. Fear of being rejected. Fear that someday I’d get so lonely I’d compromise in ways I didn’t want to. Fear that I’d be so afraid of compromising when I shouldn’t that I’d refuse to compromise when I should.”
“When I was in high school I was so angry, all the time,” I said as I made connections among his freckles. It was easier to talk like this, addressing my thoughts to someone’s skin. “Angry at the world, angry at myself, at my parents. Everything seemed like this rigged game, where the only way to win was to either become something I hated, or to burn the game down. The only thing I cared about was drawing. When I drew, I could make the world anything I wanted. Make things look how I wished they were. Change all the rules. And when I got into tattooing, I loved that I could do that for people. Could help them make their bodies into what they wanted them to be. It’s such a powerful thing, to rewrite your own skin.” It had taken me years to get comfortable in my own; to style myself exactly as I wished. A friend once told me that some people choose their style to hide who they are and some choose their style to express it. And I wasn’t interested in hiding. “That’s what I did, you know? I rewrote who”
“So, you identify as queer, yeah?” Christopher confirmed, and I nodded. “This might be silly,” he said. “Or maybe not cool to ask, I don’t know. But will you tell me if you feel like I’m doing a thing where I cast you in a role you don’t think is right?”
“I don’t really think my job is to make myself easy to like,” I bit off. It”
“have a crush on this girl. Yes, I realize that makes me sound fourteen. But it feels ridiculous to use the word “woman” in the same sentence as “crush,” like pairing caviar with cotton candy.”
“Some days I just…I have this, uh, thing. It’s like someone walked by and turned the volume up on the whole world. Every sound is deafening, and every detail of every brick catches my eye so I can’t help but notice it. A touch feels like sandpaper across my skin, and basic, simple things like ordering a sandwich become this, like, tactical mission with so many moving parts…”
Except where otherwise noted, all rights reserved to the author(s) of this book (mentioned above). The content of this page serves solely as promotional material for the aforementioned book. If you enjoyed these quotes, you can support the author(s) by acquiring the full book from Amazon.
Book Keywords:
tattoo, romance, queer-m-f-romance
