Luna

“I imagined downtime, thoughtful gifts for my parents, the family vacations we’d never taken, their mortgage paid off. I imagined all their hard work finally repaid, all their sacrifices not only compensated but rewarded.

I imagined them thinking it was all worth it. Telling me how much they loved me.

All my life, when I thought of my future, that was what I pictured. Not a career. The things I thought would come with it.

Happiness, love, safety.

And that dream had been enough for a long time. What was school if not a chance to earn your worth?”
― Emily Henry, Happy Place

“This is how I used to think of love. As something so delicate it couldn’t be caught without being snuffed out. Now I know better. I know the flame may gutter and flare with the wind, but it will always be there.”
― Emily Henry, Happy Place

“I spent my whole life chasing things and people who could make me feel like I mattered.”
― Emily Henry, Happy Place

“Just trying to be helpful,” said Thomas.
“I didn’t ask you here for help. You just happened to turn up right after—” Alastair made a gesture apparently intended to encompass demons hiding in stables, and slid Cortana back into its scabbard at his hip. “I asked you here because I wanted to know why you sent me a note calling me stupid.”
“I didn’t,” Thomas began indignantly, and then recalled, with a moment of freezing horror, what he had written in Henry’s laboratory. Dear Alastair, why are you so stupid and so frustrating, and why do I think about you all the time?
Oh no. But how—?
Alastair produced a burnt piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Thomas. Most of the paper had been charred beyond legibility. What was left read:
Dear Alastair,
why are you so stupid
I brush my teeth
don’t tell anyone
—Thomas
“I don’t know why you don’t want anyone to know you brush your teeth,” Alastair added, “but I will, of course, keep this news in the strictest confidence.”
― Cassandra Clare, Chain of Thorns