Carrie Jones

Do you admit that you are not the only person, or half-person genetically, that can save other sentient beings?__e crinkles his nose. __ do.___nd do you admit that you have a bad temper, a cute car, and a nice girlfriend?__ hold my breath.__ have an amazing girlfriend,_ he says. And then he kisses me, which is, you have to admit, the perfect boyfriend thing to do. The kiss is soft and speckling like star promises in a night sky. I stretch into it, wishing that I could hold onto it forever, even though I know that kisses can__ last forever__an they?

So there__ this annual dance in a couple of weeks.___he Winter Ball,_ I interrupt. __here have been signs up everywhere.___ou want to go?__ think about it for a half second. __ill you dress up?__e nods.I move forward so my hands are flat on the towel and my face is much closer to his face. Something inside my chest warms up like a nice kind of heartburn and I say, __nd will we slow dance?__e nods again. His bottom lip turns in toward his mouth for a second, just disappears and then comes back.Stretching out my spine so my lips are nearly touching his I say, __nd will you press yourself against me and we__l move really close together and then your hand will stretch out across the back of my head and your fingers will wrap into my hair and then . . .__e doesn__ nod. He just tilts his head down, moves his fingers into my hair, and his lips touch mine in a forever kiss. His lips are soft and hard all at once. His breath mixes with my breath. Everything inside of me whooshes out.

That's what people who love you do: they hold you and lie. They tell you that you're worthy, that everything will be all right, and they do that even when you both know without a doubt that this is not true, that is it nowhere near the truth.

That's when I realize how much I don't want to be alone, how sobbing should not be a solitary sport..

Home is where the heart is.

Nick leans down and kisses my eyelids. __oving you, Zara, is a full-time job. It__ a great job, don__ get me wrong. It__ the best job in the universe. But it is not easy, because you tend to . . .___et hurt?_ Betty suggests. __ind trouble? Pass out? Break arms?___ll of the above._ Nick laughs.My hand finds Nick__ wrist and I grab onto its thickness. __ou know, I__ the patient here. Where__ the bedside manner? Where__ the sympathy?___ara, sympathy is just a good excuse to buy greeting cards and make sorry eyes and secretly gloat over how glad you are that you aren__ the person whose crap is hanging out there for the world to see,_ Betty says.

We__l fight them. We took down my dad. We__e taken down so many since then. We__l take down these jokesters too.___ will never let anything happen to you,_ Nick growls into my hair. __ will die before you get hurt again. So help me God, Zara. I will die."__e too.___hat?___ will die before I let anyone hurt you or Issie or Dev or Gram or . . ._ I stop and pull my head away from his chest so I can look up at him. __his list is getting kind of long and melodramatic, isn__ it?__e laughs. His hand moves slowly up my spine. He starts leaning down for a kiss. __eah. It is.

What we do,our choices, that's what defines us.

She is a beautiful creature, but beauty doesn't equal good and it certainly doesn't equal sane.

So, I__ a bear,_ she explains, eyeing us all. __ait? Is Issie something?___ope,_ Issie pouts. __ll human. All the time.___he coolest human ever,_ Devyn says, reaching down and ruffling her hair.

Are we taking the Subaru?___o. We__l run.__unning is not part of my plan. Stopping right here is my plan.____ not actually supposed to run,_ I try to say. __he arm and everything._____ sorry about your arm.___eally?__e swoops me up as if I weigh nothing, leans me against his chest, and carries me the way grooms are supposed to carry brides over thresholds. He is cold now, away from the fire. He smells of mushrooms. __re you afraid of heights?__e keeps my good arm against him, and doesn__ even jostle my cast arm. It__ smooth and quick and I don__ have time to ...He sets me down on the rolling ground in a large clearing in the middle of tall pine trees. My breath whooshes out like I__ been holding it.__h, that was amazing,_ I say before I realize it.__ou__e glowing. I thought you hated me.___ do. But flying? I don__ hate flying. I read this book once where____ou read?___eah.___ood. I like philosophy myself. It__ good to have a daughter who reads.__ swallow, shift my weight on my feet. They won__ be able to follow us here; we left no tracks. I can__ believe we flew. __an all pixies fly? Because I was totally unprepared for that. I mean, I didn__ read that.___nly ones with royal blood. You can.

She smirks."Are you attempting to stop me, little one?""Excuse me? Did you just call me 'little one'? What are you? Like, four feet tall?" I ask.

Astley comes to my side. "Are you well?" "No," I tell him, voice hoarse. "I am not well. I am broken inside. I am broken almost all-the-way deep, and I don't know...I don't know if I can ever be unbroken, let alone well again_.

I want you to want me because you want me, not because of grief, not because he is not here. I want you to love me for me. I want you to kiss me first and not because you need me to help you, but because you need to kiss me.