Amanda Nemer

“So this was how it felt- to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue.”
― Nina LaCour, Yerba Buena

“There was only so much grieving allowed when it was over someone who was never really hers.”
― Nina LaCour, Yerba Buena

“She'd been a flower. Snipped from the root, quick to wilt, temporary. She'd existed to be lovely and to be chosen. No one had expected her to last.”
― Nina LaCour, Yerba Buena

“I was a vase.
The thought struck her as she gazed at the wall of them. She had been a vessel; it was true. She'd stepped into this shop, introduced herself, asked for a job, hoped it would fill her.
And then, sitting with Jacob at the community table, she'd been a flower. Snipped from the root, quick to wilt, temporary. She'd existed to be lovely and to be chosen. No one had expected her to last.
But she hadn't been a flower when she'd gone to live with Claire, had she?
Emilie traveled deeper into the shop. She was in the addition now, its ceiling higher, its rows of tables laden with houseplants. Water, she decided. That's what she'd been with Claire. Shapeless, colorless, but necessary. She'd done what she had to. She had been there for her grandmother. She'd kept her family afloat.
But what was she now?”
― Nina LaCour, Yerba Buena