berfin

“Sometimes I wonder if [my parents] want me to do well for me, or if they want me to do well for them. If all my accomplishments are for their pleasure, rather than mine.”
― Tashie Bhuiyan, Counting Down with You

“Sometimes my eyes open and I know, somewhere in my bones, that I have formed myself to the shape of waking up beside you.”
― Olivie Blake, One for My Enemy

“His shoulders were starting to stop hunching. "It's called sitting down together," he said, dragging the words out exaggeratedly. "At a table. In chairs. Most people can get through lunch without turning it into an act of war."

"I'm not most people," I said. "Also, the seating arrangements are an act of war, and if you haven't noticed, that's just embarrassing. Do you think that everyone is always trying to sit with you for your amazing personality or something?"

"I guess you're just immune," he said.

"Bloody well right I am," I said, but he was grinning at me a little from under his overgrown hair, tentatively, and apparently I was lying.”
― Naomi Novik, A Deadly Education

“I hold up two fingers. 'How many fingers?'
He squints. 'Twenty-five?'
'Yeah, you'll be fine.”
― Rick Riordan, Daughter of the Deep