I don't want to hurt you or anybody so please forget about me. Just try. Find yourself a better friend.
There used to be days that I thought I was okay, or at least that I was going to be. We'd be hanging out somewhere and everything would just fit right and I would think 'it will be okay if it can just be like this forever' but of course nothing can ever stay just how it is forever.
You might be looking for reasons but there are no reasons.
It was the moment I realized what music can do to people, how it can make you hurt and feel so good all at once.
The trouble with denial is that when the truth comes, you aren't ready.
Dignity is overrated. You know what trumps dignity? Kissing.
He wipes tears off my face and then snot. He uses his hands. He loves me that much.
dear today, i spend all of you pretending i'm okay when i'm not, pretending i'm happy when i'm not, pretending about everything to everyone.
I’ll make a swing so I can reach the places I can’t reach yet.
There are still Ava Maddoxes to find and sets to create and girls to kiss and colleges to attend. It's possible that someday I will hear a patsy Cline song and the heartbreak will barely register. It will be some distant, buried feeling. I won't remember how much it once hurt.
The whole world was out there, but I was in my mother's arms, and I didn't know it yet.
It isn't the happy ending Ingrid and I had dreamed up, but it's all a part of what I'm working through. The way life changes. The way people and things disappear. Then appear, unexpectedly, and hold you close.
I imagine what would happen if everyone turned their regrets into wishes, went around shouting them.
It's the opposite of the collapse of the fantasy. It's what happens when the illusion pales in comparison to the truth. I'm seeing her for the first time. Not Ava Garden Wilder, the rags-to-riches granddaughter of Clyde Jones. Not a tragic, romantic heroine. Just Ava. And I am utterly in love.
