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“You say you want me to *be somebody*, but, like, we're all just people. Eveeryone is somebody. I--I didn't think you'd approve because you're always telling me I need to be around the kind of people who can help me get ahead.”
― Wendy Heard, We'll Never Tell

“Briseis is kneeling by my body. She has brought water and cloth, and washes the blood and dirt from my skin. Her hands are gentle, as though she washes a baby, not a dead thing. Achilles opens the tent, and their eyes meet over my body.

"Get away from him," he says.

"I am almost finished. He does not deserve to lie in filth."

"I would not have your hands on him."

Her eyes are sharp with tears. "Do you think you are the only one who loved him?"

"Get out. Get out!"

"You care more for him in death than in life." Her voice is bitter with grief. "How could you have let him go? You knew he could not fight!"

Achilles screams, and shatters a serving bowl. "Get out!"

Briseis does not flinch. "Kill me. It will not bring him back. He was worth ten of you. Ten! And you sent him to his death!"

The sound that comes from him is hardly human. "I tried to stop him! I told him not to leave the beach!"

"You are the one who made him go." Briseis steps towards him. "He fought to save you, and your darling reputation. Because he could not bear to see you suffer!"

Achilles buries his face in his hands. But she does not relent. "You have never deserved him. I do not know why he ever loved you. You care only for yourself!"

Achilles' gaze lifts to meet hers. She is afraid, but does not draw back. "I hope that Hector kills you."

The breath rasps in his throat. "Do you think I do not hope the same?" he asks.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“I felt like, how did I even get to this point where my entire life is tied up in this one person? If you and I decide to be together and then we break up, I don't just lose you. I lose your dad. I lose my place to go that isn't my empty house. I'll have to hide all our stuff in a box, shut my memories of you away.”
― Wendy Heard, We'll Never Tell

“But no matter what happens with me and you, as long as my dad is alive and you want him in your life, he's going to be there. You won't lose him. And I'd never keep him from you out of spite.”
― Wendy Heard, We'll Never Tell