Stacey Jay

I am not much of a mind to touch

I am always alone, pretending to be someone else or lost in a vast emptiness. I miss life. I miss conversation and laughter and shared joy and hurt. I miss dancing and painting. I miss waking up to a day with no evil in it - at least, none that I can see.

There__ always been sadness hidden at the core of Hitch, but it__ never been big enough to taste. Occasionally, I__ get a whiff of it, salty on the wind, but it never pressed in between us like it does now, threatening to drown us both.

Real love has little to do with falling. It's a climb up the rocky face of a mountain, hard work, and most people are too selfish or too scared to bother. Very few reach the critical point in their relationship that summons the attention of the light and the dark, that place where they will make a commitment to love no matter what obstacles-or temptations- appear in their path.

Fear can force obedience, but it can never transform a heart.

It was like watching an angsty hormone-fueled train wreck and firmly cemented my resolve to be at least twenty-five before I considered getting hitched.

But maybe that isn't possible. Maybe the mind of the majority is always the healthy mind, simply by virtue of its numbers. Maybe it's the definition of madness to believe I'm right and everyone else if wrong, to find my thoughts rational and reasonable when almost the entire world finds them damaged and flawed.

Because the part of me that remembers what it was like all those lifetimes ago still cares for you .. loves you.

...real teenage boys aren't like characters in the books you read. They smell funny and are obsessed with video games and say dumb things. They're still learning, just like you.

Despite the love songs humankind churns out like butter, true lovers don't come together every day. As the Mercinaries ply their trade - destroying hope, crushing compassion, inciting war and violence - soul-mated pairs are becoming an endangered species.

Is there anything hotter than a cute guy who is also armed and dangerous? I think not.

Now the thought of forever makes me tired. Frightened. Sad. What is forever worth? When love is so fragile and even one human life so long?

I love you. I want to do everything with you. I want to marry you and have kids with you and get old with you. And then I want to die the day before you do, so I never have to live without you.

There's something weird about that guy," she whispers as she slips into the car, bringing an unexpected smile to my face.Ah, Ariel. Some might say she has poor taste, but I cant help but be flat

It__ only sixteen ninety-five," I say with a flutter of my lashes."You__e serious."I prop my hands on my waist and stick out a hip, striking a pose worthy of a supermodel. "Look at me. Don__ I look serious?"She collapses into the chair outside the dressing room in a fit of giggles so cute they make my insides fizz. "No! You must be stopped," she says."Why?" I strut down an aisle of yellowed lingerie, swiveling my hips, batting bras with flicks of my fingers. "I will be the king of the disco. I will be_" I spin and strike another pose. "An inspiration."She sniffs and swipes at her eyes. "The real Dylan would die before he__ be seen in public in something like that.""The real Dylan is boring." I brace my hands on the arms of her chair and lean down until our faces are a whisper apart. "And he__ not one fourth the kisser I am.""Is that right?" Her lips quirk."You know it is."Her smile melts, and her breath comes faster. "Yeah. I do.

My motto for fashion: If you can__ afford to make an elegant statement, make a ridiculous one.

Shakespeare__ enduring tragedy did its part to further the goals of the Mercenaries__lamorizing death, making dying for love seem the most noble act of all, though nothing could be further from the truth. Taking an innocent life__n a misguided attempt to prove love or for any other reason__s a useless waste.

I will show her that loving her is my greatest truth, and the most beautiful thing I have ever known. _ _ Gem