1
If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.Sarah Dessen
2
As for me, I was just trying to get it right, whatever that means. But now I finally felt I was on my way. Everyone had a forever, but given a choice, this would be mine. The one that began in this moment, with Wes, in a kiss that took my breath away, then gave it back - leaving meastounded, amazed and most of all, alive.Sarah Dessen
3
Because you have to just go with the flow. Your life is not your own, with people coming in and out all the time. You get mellow because you have to.Sarah Dessen
4
The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.Sarah Dessen
5
Fine, " he repeated, and I wondered why it was I kept coming back to this, again and again, a word that you said when someone asked how you were but didn't really care to know the truth.Sarah Dessen
6
It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder -if not impossible- to lose.Sarah Dessen
7
It all counts, ' Adam said again. 'And the bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more, you're all good.-pg 325 Along for the RideSarah Dessen
8
Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of riding jump bikes with a bunch of grungy boys. I'd always tell her, why can't I do both? Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?Sarah Dessen
9
There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.Sarah Dessen
10
Shit, " Delia said. "I mean, shoot. No, actually, I mean shit. I really do.Sarah Dessen
11
Fifteen minutes later, a meeting was called. "Okay, look." Deb's face was dead serious. "I know I just joined this project, and I don't want to offend anyone. But I'm going to be honest. I think you've been going about this all wrong." "I'm offended, " Dave told her flatly.Sarah Dessen
12
I remembered Owen telling me how music had saved him in Phoenix, that it drowned everything out, and it was the same for me now. As long as I had something to listen to, I could blur the things I didn't want to think about, if not block them out completely.Sarah Dessen
13
I'm sorry, " I heard him say again. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a sudden blur of movement as he slid out of his seat, left some bills for the breakfast he wouldn't eat, and walked away. And as he did, I thought again of those mornings in the hallway at school, way back in ninth grade. Everything had started in such sharp detail, each aspect pronounced and clear. Obviously, endings were different. Harder to see, full of shapes that could be one thing or another, with all the things that you were once so sure of suddenly not familiar, if they were even recognizable at all.Sarah Dessen
14
...You can't unlearn something, even if you want to. You know what you know.Sarah Dessen
15
I wasn’t ready to think about the other yet: that it wasn’t that I wasn’t right for Macon, but that maybe he wasn’t right for me. There was a difference. Even for someone who things didn’t come easy for, someone like me.Sarah Dessen
16
You always think you want to be noticed. Until you are.Sarah Dessen
17
You get used to people being a certain way; you depend on it. And when they surprise you, for better or worse, it can shake you to your core.Sarah Dessen
18
It's hard to do, " I said. Wes looked at me. "What is?" I swallowed, not sure why I'd said this out loud. "Get it right.Sarah Dessen
19
We make such messes in this life, both accidently and on purpose. But wiping the surface clean doesn't really make anything any neater. It just masks what is below. It's only when you really dig down deep, go underground, that you can see who you really are.Sarah Dessen
20
To me, summer has always been about potential. This was especially true when I was in high school. Those 3 or so months between 1 school year and the next always meant change. People got taller or wider or smaller. They broke up or came together, lost friends or gained them, had life experiences that you could tell had transformed them even if you didn't know what they were. In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible. As a teenager, I was always hoping to change, to become someone other than who I was. Each summer, I felt I had the chance to do that. All I had to do was wait and see what happened. .Sarah Dessen
21
That's the thing, though. You always think you want to be noticed. Until you areSarah Dessen