Anja

“Like HIV, depression was a king at playing hide-and-seek. It concealed itself in reservoirs deep inside the mind, waiting for the walls you built around it to eventually erode. Depression could be at undetectable levels for months or years. You'd be all happy and stable and think you were cured, you were a survivor, and then BAM, out of nowhere it resurged.”
― Krystal Sutherland, A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares

“Point is, you gotta be scared. Fear protects you. You gotta be scared right down to your bones" - he touched his fingertips to her collarbone - "for bravery to mean anything.”
― Krystal Sutherland, A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares

“Anxiety felt like a grapnel anchor had been pickaxed into your back, one prong in each lung, one through the heart, one through the spine, the weight curving your posture forward, dragging you down to the murky depths of the sea floor. The good news was that you kind of got used to it after a while. Got used to the gasping, brink-of-heart-attack feeling that followed you everywhere. All you had to do was grab one of the prongs that stuck out from the bottom of your sternum, give it a little shake, and say, “Listen, asshole. We’re not dying. We have shit to do.”
― Krystal Sutherland, A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares

“it’s hard not to see. You’re the kind of pair that makes everyone around them feel as though they’re missing out on a private joke.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue