Kasie West

“Hayden?""Yes,Gia?""Nothing I just wanted to say your name”

“Growing up, I never felt deprived. I was always happy. It seems only lately I've started seeing everything I didn't have.”

“Because an illusion is an illusion. Reality always exists despite the facade.”

“Even though I knew this might end in heartbreak, that he might make my life scary and complicated and unpredictable, I knew I couldn't let him walk away. Because I knew he'd also make my life happy and comforting and full.”

“I thought I wanted these memories, but now I realize he hardly knows me.”

“One of my friends at the Compound has a photographic memory. Everything she ever sees, reads, or hears, she remembers forever in perfect detail.”

“Stop worrying about someone else's feelings for once and worry about your grade.”

“Look at me, making one of your dreams come true. You and your Norm truck driving around Normville.""You're practically a god.”

“He shrugs. "Doesn't help to waste my time thinking about would've-beens."Laila whispers, "He says to the girl with a mind full of them.”

“Sometimes regardless of what we want, reality takes over.”

“I can pay you."He raised his eyebrows. "I'm sure there are services for that.Maybe you can try calling 1-800-HOOKERS or something?""You know the number well?”

“Dad, she's beautiful. I remember where she was standing.”

“You need to empty your mind, and relax each other muscle group until you feel like you are going to melt into the floor. Then you just let it all go. All the expectations, all the unneeded worry, all the things other people want for you but you don't want for yourself.”

“My hands still on his shoulders. “Hi,” he says. “Sorry.” “For what?” “For the fact that you are such a big flirt.” He laughs. “You’re the one in my lap. I was just sitting here minding my own business.” “Just the plane, then?” “Of course.” I try to stand up, but he pulls me back down again. “Man, the plane is really bumpy today,” he says.”

“It was hard to remember what I'd been so scared of. Being treated differently? Lack of acceptance? I was the one who hadn't accepted myself for who I was. I was the one who needed to be comfortable in my own skin. I hoped I could do that moving forward.”

“We make our own luck. I believed that, too. We chose our own fate. We controlled our own future. I knew what I wanted. I needed to go get it.”

“My bookcase is all yours."I walked to the door. "I've just decided that those are my favorite five words in the world.”

“The was something very satisfying about a smile that had to be earned.”

“It was hard when I knew I was about to be flooded with memories of a life I hadn't lived yet. Really, two lives I hadn't lived yet.”

“Once Addie let someone in, she was impossible to forget. There was something about her that crawled inside a person and built a nice comfy home there, her goodness expanding until it filled every limb.”