young-adult-fiction

I don't want to wake up and find out it was all a dream.

It's funny how reflections, even on the window of a store when walking down some busy street, momentarily erects a wall against all those thoughts flittering around. Some people may automatically switch their thoughts to how wide their hips have become, how quickly their hair is thinning or how funny their walk is, but it's always a reality check: this is you, right here, right now.

Soon it will all be a memory and memories decay and deform over time.

I hated goodbyes. It felt like I had to give so many of them away lately.

We were both filled with the enthusiasm that comes from being with someone you automatically click with.

That small exposure to a few measures of song threw my world of its axis. It punctured a tiny window that gave me a peek at feelings, emotions, and thoughts I never knew existed. Knowing there was more to my life I wasn't getting at this moment made me feel like a drug addict forced into rehab.

To me, guitar notes are the most beautiful sounds in the world.

I had no idea what the lyrics were in the song, but his voice wrapped around my head, weaving through my hair, and whispered into my ears that made me drunk with a feeling I never felt before.

There are some things that are never meant to be said aloud.

That mountain of courage I had been building inside me for the past several months began crumbling, tumbling down, and gaining speed like an avalanche.

Songwriting was their way to converse with the universe.

I'd never known that I could feel this broken and whole at once.

One of the professors told me last week that he feels bad teaching with the way the economy is now. __hat__ the point?_ he said. __ids aren__ getting jobs._ You never hear faculty talk that way. He did.

Look, girls know when they__e cute,_ he said. __ou don__ have to tell them. All they need to do is look in the mirror. I have one friend out in New York, an attorney. She moved out there after the school year to take the bar. She doesn__ have a job. I was like, __ow are you going to get a job there in this market?_ And she__ like, ____l wink and I__l smile._ She__ a pretty girl. Whether that works despite her poor grades is yet to be seen.

When we step onto the bridge, Nathan turns and spreads his arms out wide. __elcome to Pont des Arts, a.k.a. The Lock Bridge.

I freeze, my feet suddenly glued to the floor. It takes me a minute to gather the courage to turn around, but when I do, I immediately wish I hadn't. The boy is standing in the doorway at the end of the hall.Why is he here again? I barely allow myself time to ask the question before I move. Panicked, I turn and run back downstairs as fast as I can."Hey! Wait!" he calls after me.I don't stop.

I grab the nearest lamppost when my knees threaten to give out, panting for breath as the words rip through me

I head in the direction of the Eiffel Tower when I exit the alley, relieved to be out of the dark.