1,320 seconds walk into the room before he does.

— Tahereh Mafi

Alice couldn’t explain why, exactly, but she knew now that things had changed between them. Oliver had become her friend in an absolute, uncomplicated way. She was done fighting him, and he was done lying to her.

— Tahereh Mafi

Alice jumped from flagstone to flagstone, her face caught in the rain light 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.

— Tahereh Mafi

Alice would choose to love herself, different and extraordinary, every day of the week.

— Tahereh Mafi

All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.

— Tahereh Mafi

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.

— Tahereh Mafi

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 he kisses me. His lips are softer than anything I've ever known, soft like a first snowfall, like biting into cotton candy, like melting and floating and being weightless in water. It’s sweet, it’SSO effortlessly sweet. And then it changes.“Oh God—” He kisses me again, this time stronger, desperate, like he has to have me, like he’s dying to memorize the feel of my lips against his own. The taste of him is making me crazy; he’s all heat and desire and peppermint and I want more. I've just begun reeling him in, pulling him into me when he breaks away. He’s breathing like he’s lost his mind Andre’s looking at me like something has broken inside of him, like he’s woken up to find that his nightmares were just that, that they never existed, that it was all just a bad dream that felt far too real, but now he’s awake, and he’s safe and everything is going to be okay and’m falling. I’m falling apart and into his heart, and I’m a disaster.

— Tahereh Mafi

And I do. I do wonder, I think about it all the time. What it would be like to kill myself. Because I never really know, I still can't tell the difference, I'm never quite certain whether I'm actually alive. I sit here every single day. Run, I said to myself. Run until your lungs collapse, until the wind whips and snaps at your tattered clothes, until you're a blur that blends into the background. Run, Juliette, run faster, run until your bones break and your shins split and your muscles atrophy and your heart dies because it was always too big for your chest, and it beat too fast for too long and you run. Run run run until you can't hear their feet behind you. Run until they drop their fists and their shouts dissolve in the air. Run with your eyes open and your mouth shut and dam the river rushing up behind your eyes. Run, Juliette. Run until you drop dead. Make sure your heart stops before they ever reach you. Before they ever touch you. Run, I said.

— Tahereh Mafi

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.

— Tahereh Mafi

And I've fallen. So hard. I've hit the ground. Gone right through it. Never in my life have I felt this. Nothing like this. I've felt shame and cowardice, weakness and strength. I've known terror and indifference, self-hate and general disgust. Furthermore, I've seen things that cannot be unseen. And yet I've known nothing like this terrible, horrible, paralyzing feeling. I feel crippled. Desperate and out of control. And it keeps getting worse. Every day I feel sick. Empty and somehow aching. Love is a heartless bastard.

— Tahereh Mafi