She couldn’t remember what they had talked about, only that she had looked at her rapt from a place just behind her eyes, a place full of jumbled thoughts that she had kept to herself even then.

Parlavano poco, ma trascorrevano il tempo insieme, ognuno concentrato sulla propria voragine, con l’altro che lo teneva stretto e in salvo, senza bisogno di tante parole.

Separating them were two layers of brick, a few inches of plaster, and nine years of silence.

In the end we are almost never happy or unhappy because of what happens to us; we are one or the other depending on the humor that flows inside us.

Even though he was afraid to admit it, when he was with her it seemed it was worth doing all those normal things that normal people do.

It was strange to find them here, still alive, with their shared bits of past that suddenly counted for nothing.

Mattia’s voice no longer stirred anything in his stomach, but he was aware of the idea of him and always would be, as the only true benchmark for everything that had come afterward.

Misschien dat de anderen van hem hielden omdat ze dachten dat hij onfeilbaar was, maar ik niet. Ik hield gewoon van hem, punt uit.

The love of those we don’t love in return settles on the surface and from there quickly evaporates.

Alleen en verloren, vlak bij elkaar, maar niet dicht genoeg om elkaar echt te raken.