Would it kill you to just honestly like a thing?

Tragedy was in their bones.

But Rachel wasn’t sure Palms had ever had better days. To her, it had always been one of those places where dreams and dreamers had gone to die.

All the Arabic I know. Pshhhh. Besides, between the two of us combined we’ve got the vocabulary of at least a three-year-old’, Miriam huffed. ‘Between the two of us,’ Lulu said, flourishing her hand, ’we are at least one whole terrorist.

It’s kind of amazing what you can do when you decided you can’t fail.

Don’t make me a heroine. Don’t make me a villain. You’ll be lucky enough to walk your own path.

Of strangers asking her over and over again what she was. Like a piece of flora or fauna. Like she was missing her proper taxonomy.

There were so few times in Lulu’s life, so few moments, that the scared reached out and touched her. Sitting here, she felt it in her bones. It didn’t matter that this was two old customs married together in a strange, new thing that only belonged to her family. That was what made it so special to her in the first place.

You gave me books and articles. You keep telling me not to forget I’m Arab. But it’s not just the white people reminding me who I am, Baba. Arabs remind me I’m not one of them too. This world may never let me forget I am Arab, but it will also keep me from belonging as one of them.

Queens, Lulu-cat. We’ve crowned ourselves. We run ragged as we please. The only people who tell us what to do are each other.