I think there’s this survival instinct inside all of us that clicks on when we see other people failing. It makes me feel gross and incredibly human.

So this is creepy,' I say, motioning to the school with my non-key-shiv hand.

Her boyfriend, Camdon or Brandon or whatever his name is, tosses Callie his wallet and says, 'Gotta take a leak.' They exchange a kiss--- which, I mean, why? Is he going to drown in the toilet?

I hate that there's never anyting good on TV on Saturday afternoons. It's like even the networks are trying to get you off your ass and have a life.

Aha! I take my three keys on my ring (car, house, El's) and hold my hand in a fist so that each of the keys is peeking out from between my fingers. I remember seeing this on a self-denfense special of Maury. Television saves lives.

I want to be with you,” he says. “But I can’t if you won’t let me.”“Why?” I drop my bag in the driveway. “Why do you want to be with this?” I wave my arm up and down the length of my body. Immediately, I hate myself for this. The only person making this about my body is me.“Because I like you. I think I might feel a lot more than that for you, Willowdean. How is that so hard to believe?

Sometimes catastrophes split you in half and even if all the pieces are there, they might not ever fit back together.

Clover City is the kind of place you leave. It's love that either sucks you in or pushes you away. There are only a few who really make it out and stay out, while the rest of us drink, procreate, and go to church, and that seems enough to keep us afloat.

No matter how much I tell myself that the fat and the stretch marks don’t matter, they do.

But we can’t walk around scared all the time. That’s no way to do things.