Michelle Painchaud

So what if you hurt him? He'll hurt you. You'll hurt each other. That's what love is about, right? You can't know what'll happen till you actually try it. Don't try to make excuses like you're protecting him.

He laughs and switches lanes. "All right. So, favorite song?""Ever?"He nods. I bite my lip and watch the just-budding trees flash by outside."I don't think I've found it yet."His mouth twists with a smile I've never seen before. And I've seen every smile."That's the right answer.

At the end of the day we__e all reactive personalities. We just don__ know it until we meet the right catalyst.

I knew," he murmurs. I can hear him over the music only because he says it right in my ear. "Right after we talked in the mall, I knew.""Knew what?""That you were going to be the first girl to break my heart."My breath catches. I force the smile now. "I haven't broken anything yet, right?""You will. Someday. But everybody breaks everything. For now we're fantastic. It's just, the better we get, the harder I realize the fall will be.