Paula Stokes

Guilt is basically one of my superpowers. It__ been programmed into me from the moment I was old enough to know what it was.

Who would vandalize a doghouse? I ask."Cats?" Bee suggests.

If you__e never been close to death, life probably seems pretty solid. The truth is, it can be destroyed in an instant, like a photograph. One moment your world is slick and shiny. But then the Universe crumples everything into a ball. And even if you don__ get crushed, if you fight to straighten things out, your life will never be the same again.

We wind our way up the spiral staircase and then down the long hallway that leads to his room. I feel almost like I__ watching the scene unfold from outside my body. My fingers are interlocked with his as he pulls me toward a moment that__ going to change everything. We are ten steps away. Five steps. I can__ decide. But then I do.

Killing someone is different in practice than it is in theory. There are factors you can__ prepare for, feelings in the moment where you__l question everything you thought you knew about yourself, other feelings that might follow you long after the deed is done.

My name is Winter Kim. Today I killed a man. Soon I hope to kill another.

The world needs more beautiful things.

Not sure how you can get them to him without looking like a crazy stalker chick," Micah says."You think I'm a crazy stalker chick?""You're using an ancient war manual to try to win back your boyfriend. I think you're a girl who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants," he says. "Hey, at least you're committed.

Nothing stings quite like an unanswered text message.

Some people just want to be part of the story, even if it__ a story that__ completely fabricated.

I get it. Traveling halfway across the world to run into the boy you grew up with, getting back together after years apart__hat__ an epic fucking fairytale. I don__ blame you for being seduced by it. I guess I just thought what we had was better. You know, because it was real.

I don__ think you can just choose to believe in God. You either do or you don__, and no matter what camp you__e in, it would take something life-changing to truly lead you into the other one.

Gideon and I sit there in the dark, wordless for a while, only our ragged breaths disturbing the silence. Memories of my sister overwhelm me__ see her impish grin as she leans over me at the orphanage, tugging on my hair until I wake up. I remember us climbing up to the roof as kids, sitting cross-legged next to the herbs and vegetables our caretakers were growing while we read the English books Rose had __orrowed_ from her class at school. And then there was L.A.__ll of our hope for a better life so quickly crushed, but Rose never let despair overtake her. She was there after every single night to hold me until the pain went away. And later, when I got numb to it all, she still made a point of holding me, of promising me that one day things would be different.

When you share feelings with someone, or secrets, it adds a layer of complexity to even the simplest things.

When you care about someone, you can__ just turn that off because you learn they betrayed you.

If you asked me whether I was the type of person who liked trying new things or preferred sticking with what was familiar, I would have told you I was the second girl. The if __t-aint-broke-don__-fix-it girl. I also would have told you plays were lame. It suddenly occurs to me that I don__ seem to know very much about_me. It__ a weird feeling, like maybe a stranger is inhabiting my body. Or maybe a stranger was, and I kicked her out.

I laugh as an unfamiliar feeling envelops me. I think it might be happiness.