You don’t look like a genie.""Palazzo pants and sequined vests don’t cut it in the United States.

The better I know you, the more incredible you are.

I think it must be one of those things where no one’s wrong and everybody loses.

Memory loss is strange. It’s like showing up for a movie after it’s started. I’m sure I’ve missed something. I don’t know if it’s important or not. So I do the best I can to lose myself in the story and hope the gaps don’t matter. Later, I can look it up, or someone will remind me, or maybe it’s perfectly fine to not know.

Why did things have to get so backwards in our house? Since she couldn’t be the adult, I knew that it had to be me. But that didn’t stop me from hating it--from wishing it was just over. I’d give anything to be a kid again and not to be the responsible one in the house. It was like I was trapped in a horrible virtual-reality game, except there was no way for me to quit.

Strange how knowing our story had no happy ending had freed us to live in the moment. We weren’t guy and girl. We weren’t damaged and terminal. We were just now.

Thanks for driving me home, Mason. And for dinner. And…everything.”“You’re welcome.” His hand cupped my shoulder, his face in the shadows. “Was this a date?”“No.”His smile was a slash of white in the darkness. “Then you’re not expecting me to kiss you good-night.”“No.” I smiled back.“Too bad.

There it was again, that strange sensation. Sort of floaty. Completely lovely. “Why aren’t we kissing yet?”“The same question had crossed my mind.” He leaned closer and pressed his lips to mine.I could never get enough of this sweet, crazy kissing. How did anyone ever get anything done when they were falling in love?

I loved her in ways I understood, full of physical aches and the need to be near her whenever I could. But I also loved her in ways that were unfamiliar, with an intensity that made me willing to attempt the impossible.

Camarin and I are both baffled by the pleasure humans find with bowling. The noise is maddening, the equipment unsanitary, and the repetition boring.