Shannon

“I want to know how to make this girl laugh. I want to know what makes her cry. I want to know what it feels like to have her look at me as if I’m her knight in shinning armor.”
― Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry

“Tell me somethin’ you do that would shock me.”
She sits back on the couch. “Shock you?”
“Yeah. Shock me to the core.”
She sits up on her knees and leans toward me. “I’ve thought about you, Carlos,” she whispers in my ear.
“At night, in bed. I think about kissing you, our tongues sliding against each other’s, while your hands are buried in my hair. When I think about feeling those ripples in
your naked chest I touch my—”
“Here’s more popcorn!” Westford says, barging into the room with two big bowls filled to the
rim with freshly popped popcorn. “Kiara, what are you doing?”
― Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction

“I start to walk out of the room, but I hear him start to panic and his breathing gets labored. He reaches out to me.
“Don’t go. Please.”
I sit next to him on the bed, wondering if he’s afraid of being abandoned. He slings his arm around my thigh and rests his forehead against my knee. “I have to protect you,” he says softly.
“From who?”
“El Diablo.”
“El Diablo? Who’s that?” I ask.
“It’s complicated.”
What does that mean? “Try to rest,” I tell him.
“I can’t. My entire body hurts.”
“I know.” I gently rub the arm that’s slung around me until his breathing slows.
“I wish I could help you,” I whisper.
“You are,” he murmurs against my knee. “Just don’t leave me, okay? Everyone leaves me.”
― Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction

“You know, I thought about that a lot these last couple of years," She says in a choked voice. "About who was there for you. Who held your hand while you grieved for all that you'd lost?”
― Gayle Forman, Where She Went