Tahereh Mafi

Lift your hips for me, love.

Warner. A white bird with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head. A fair - skinned boy with gold hair, the leader of Sector 45. It was always him. All along . The link.

Alice jumped from flagstone to flagstone, her face caught in the rainlight glow, her hand grasping for a touch of gold. The towns excitement was contagious, and the air was so thick with promise Alice could almost bite into it.

we write every day, we fight every day, we think and scheme and dream a little dream every day. manuscripts pile up in the kitchen sink, run-on sentences dangle around our necks. we plant purple prose in our gardens and snip the adverbs only to thread them in our hair. we write with no guarantees, no certainties, no promises of what might come and we do it anyway. this is who we are.

And he leans in, so carefully. Breathing and not breathing and hearts beating between us and he's so close, he's so close and I can't feel my legs anymore. I can't feel my fingers or the cold or the emptiness of this room because all I feel is him, everywhere, filling everything and he whispers"Please."He says, "Please don't shoot me for this.

And I don't know much about anything in this world but I do know how to read The book written in his eyes. The way he looks at me.

First! Does this need to be said? Second! Does this need to be said by me? And third! Does this need to be said by me right now?

Best to introduce yourself to patience now, so that it might find you when you call upon it later.

Please," he says. "I'm begging you to stop."I still. "I can't stomach your pain," he says. "I can feel it so strongly and it's making me crazy- please," he says to me. "Don't be sad. Or hurt. Or guilty. You've done nothing wrong." "I'm sorry-""Don't be sorry, either," he says. "God, the only reason I'm not going to kill Kent for this is because I know it would only upset you more.

Things are changing, but this time I'm not afraid. This time I know who I am. This time I've made the right choice and fighting for the right team. I feel safe. Confident

Sometimes I think the loneliness inside of me is going to explode through my skin and sometimes im not sure if crying or screaming or laughing through the hysteria will solve anything at all

Loneliness is a strange sort of thing.It creeps up on you, quiet and still, sits by your side in the dark,_strokes your hair as you sleep. It wraps itself around your bones,squeezing so tight you almost can__ breathe. It leaves lies in your_heart, lies next to you at night, leaches the light out from every corner.It__ a constant companion, clasping your hand only to yank you_down when you__e struggling to stand up.You wake up in the morning and wonder who you are. You fail_to fall asleep at night and tremble in your skin.

I have to get out of this room as soon as possible, or my own thoughts will wage war against me.

I am suspended in the moment. Flickering images faded with age, frozen thoughts hovering precariously in dead space, a whirlwind of memories that slice through my soul.

I feel like I__e been split open and stuffed with sunshine.

His lips soften into a smile that cracks apart my spine. He repeats my name like the word amuses him. Entertains him. Delights him.

Why are you touchin

Red was ruby, green was fluorescent, yellow was simply incandescent. Color was life. Color was everything.Color, you see, was the universal sign of magic.