Quotes From "Captivate" By Carrie Jones

1
Losing people you love affects you. It is buried inside of you and becomes this big, deep hole of ache. It doesn't magically go away, even when you stop officially mourning. Carrie Jones
2
He’s fine. Every time any of us are late you imagine we’re dead. You are no longer allowed to imagine anyone is dead.”“ I’m not imagining he’s dead, ” I whisper, but I’m totally imagining him bleeding to death on the snowy forest floor. Crows circle above him. A pixie arrow juts out of his beautiful chest. It’s the same thing I imagined about Devyn last week when he forgot to check in.“ You are such a liar-liar pants-on-fire.” Is kisses my cheek in her sweet friend way. “But I love you.”“ I just worry about people, ” I whisper back. “If I’m not the one out there I feel so helpless.” Coach Walsh notices we’re talking. “Girls, pay attention. And no kissing.” Everyone starts snickering. I let go of Issie’s goose-bump covered arm. My face gets hot, which means I’m in insane blush mode. Nick thinks insane blush mode is cute. I bend down and check on my ankle bracelet that Nick gave me. It’s gold and thin-chained. A tiny dolphin dangles off of it. The dolphin reminds me of Charleston because they swim right off the Battery. Next to it dangles a heart, which just reminds me of love–corny but true. I’m so afraid of losing the anklet, but I can’t take it off. I adore it that much. Carrie Jones
3
She smirks." Are you attempting to stop me, little one?"" Excuse me? Did you just call me 'little one'? What are you? Like, four feet tall?" I ask. Carrie Jones
4
Nick leans down and kisses my eyelids. “Loving you, Zara, is a full-time job. It’s a great job, don’t get me wrong. It’s the best job in the universe. But it is not easy, because you tend to .”“Get hurt?” Betty suggests. “Find trouble? Pass out? Break arms?”“ All of the above.” Nick laughs. My hand finds Nick’s wrist and I grab onto its thickness. “You know, I’m the patient here. Where’s the bedside manner? Where’s the sympathy?”“ Zara, sympathy is just a good excuse to buy greeting cards and make sorry eyes and secretly gloat over how glad you are that you aren’t the person whose crap is hanging out there for the world to see, ” Betty says. . Carrie Jones
5
We’ll fight them. We took down my dad. We’ve taken down so many since then. We’ll take down these jokesters too.”“ I will never let anything happen to you, ” Nick growls into my hair. “I will die before you get hurt again. So help me God, Zara. I will die."“ Me too.”“ What?”“ I will die before I let anyone hurt you or Issie or Dev or Gram or . .” I stop and pull my head away from his chest so I can look up at him. “This list is getting kind of long and melodramatic, isn’t it?” He laughs. His hand moves slowly up my spine. He starts leaning down for a kiss. “Yeah. It is. . Carrie Jones
6
So there’s this annual dance in a couple of weeks.”“ The Winter Ball, ” I interrupt. “There have been signs up everywhere.”“ You want to go?” I think about it for a half second. “Will you dress up?” He nods. I move forward so my hands are flat on the towel and my face is much closer to his face. Something inside my chest warms up like a nice kind of heartburn and I say, “And will we slow dance?” He nods again. His bottom lip turns in toward his mouth for a second, just disappears and then comes back. Stretching out my spine so my lips are nearly touching his I say, “And will you press yourself against me and we’ll move really close together and then your hand will stretch out across the back of my head and your fingers will wrap into my hair and then. .”He doesn’t nod. He just tilts his head down, moves his fingers into my hair, and his lips touch mine in a forever kiss. His lips are soft and hard all at once. His breath mixes with my breath. Everything inside of me whooshes out. Carrie Jones
7
How does that put me in danger?” Nick asks. It’s the first question he’s asked the entire time. Devyn, however, has been Mr. Nonstop Wondering Question Guy.“Because . .” I don’t know how to say it, struggle for the words. “Because you and I are a thing and you’re a threat.”“ You better believe I’m a threat, ” Nick growls. The entire car seems to shake with his energy. Little hairs on my arm lift and vibrate.“ He’s going macho again, ” Dev says, totally nonchalantly, while he unlocks the door.“ He’s always going macho, ” Is adds. “It must be the wolf thing.”“ I am not going macho. I am always macho, ” Nick says, and for a moment the tension ratchets down, but then his face muscles become rigid again. . Carrie Jones
8
Have you ever read Hans Christian Andersen’s story of The Little Mermaid, Miranda? Have you ever wanted something so badly that you were willing to suffer the sensation of a thousand blades cutting into your feet? Vanessa Garden
9
I meet his eyes. They are deep and almost mesmerizing. Did I say deep before? Yeah, right. That’s not it. They have a pull to them, like currents, like Velcro or something, totally captivating, like when you see a convertible flipped over on the highway and there are body bags and you don’t want to look but you look because you can’t look, because you can’t not look, because you are just riveted and .Stop. Just stop. . Carrie Jones
10
Nick spreads cream cheese on my bagel for me because it’s hard to do with one hand. You need to hold the bagel and everything.“ You are the nicest boyfriend ever, ” I tell him and kiss his cheek.“ Gag, ” Devyn says.“ You’re just jealous, ” Nick teases him and points his plastic knife at Devyn. “Which is ridiculous because you are the star of the school now that the wheelchair is totally gone. Everyone is talking about you.”“ Star of the school?” Devyn asks. He takes a swig of Gatorade.“All the girls.” Nick gestures to the girls giggling behind them. “They like miracles. It’s sexy. Remember how much play Jay Dahlberg got when he came back from being abducted?” He does not add by pixies because he does not have to.“ Really?” Devyn does this cheesy and really fake eyebrow wiggle thing so he looks like some sleezy porn dog. Carrie Jones
11
I push my thigh against his. “Well, thank God.”“Thank God what?” he asks. His hand slowly rubs up and down the place where my shoulder meets my arm. It makes me good shiver.“ That I don’t have a neck brace. It’s hard to rock a neck brace, especially if we’re still going to that dance.” He leans in and kisses my nose. “If anyone could do it, you could.” I tilt my head so our lips meet.“ Hormonal ones, I am right here. Me. The old lady otherwise known as your grandmother, ” Betty says.“ Sorry. He’s just irresistible, ” I say, settling back against him.“ Well, try to resist the irresistible, ” Betty says knowingly as the truck bumps over a pothole. Carrie Jones