❝I felt this way then, and I feel this way now: I was not put on this earth to be someone’s possession. If I want to be in a prison, then I’ll go rob a bank.❞
❝I didn’t say anything. As part of my relentless trek along the road of good choices, I never did drugs myself. Maybe I just never understood the point, the way other people seemed to understand the point. Some people understood the point so well, they made it a personal credo, the law of their independent nation, but it just seemed stupid to me, and maybe even weak. Like the world was just too big and bright and real for you, and you just couldn’t take it.❞
❝At the root of every large struggle in life is the need to be honest about something that we do not feel we can be honest about. We lie to ourselves or other people because the truth might require action on our part, and action requires courage. We say we “don’t know” what is wrong, when we do know what is wrong; we just wish we didn’t.❞
❝But if you really cared for someone, though, really cared, you wanted what they wanted for themselves, right? You wanted that for them more than anything else, even if it made your heart clutch up.❞
❝She is so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.❞
❝I forgot that wanting out didn’t require certain reasons or a vote, or agreement, or the other person being okay about it. It was simply enough to want out. If it feels bad, it’s bad, and you have the right to change your mind, even if that means someone’s upset or disappointed. You don’t owe someone your life. Years from then, after Barry, even, I finally learned that it was all right to say something wasn’t working for me when it wasn’t working. The world doesn’t come crashing down when you speak the truth.❞
❝Olivia Thornton took a sip of her tea then. She looked at us intently. “The body knows. Okay? Even when we don’t know, the body knows. And sometimes, often, its knowledge is superior to ours. It’s the one thing I’m completely sure of. Body knowledge—it’s the purest kind. It does not succumb to the mental edits and little erasings that the mind is so fond of. You want the truth, go to the body. Listen to the body. It screams, when necessary.❞
