Debbie "DJ"

“Emptiness felt like a living thing. A parasite growing in the center of your chest, somewhere behind your heart, taking every ounce of warmth and light and happiness and consuming it until there's nothing left. Emptiness feels like exhaustion, like there's no reason to fight, no reason to take another breath, no reason to try to survive. But emptiness also feels like freedom. Because it doesn't just take the good, it takes the bad, too--the anger, the bitterness, the pain--and when it's done, it leaves you with just you. A cold, shell-like echo of yourself, but still you.”
― Ava Jae, Beyond the Red

“The only balm to sorrow is memory; the only salve for the pain of losing someone to death is acknowledging the life that existed before.”
― Nina Sankovitch, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading

“The way he said her name made my heart cramp. In all my years of word collecting, I've learned this to be a tried and true fact: I can very often tell how much a person loves another person by the way they say their name. I think that's one of the best feelings in the world, when you know your name is safe in another person's mouth. When you know they'll never shout it out like a cuss word, but say it or whisper it like a once-upon-a-time.”
― Natalie Lloyd, A Snicker of Magic

“The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates