Alena

“I was young then and so hungry for experience that some days I could taste it like blood in the back of my throat. This is what I'll admit: I wanted it. All of it. I did this to myself.”
― Alexis Soloski, Flashout

“Friends are like oxygen. If you’ve been blessed enough to have always been surrounded by friends, you might think I’m overplaying this. I don’t blame you. If you’d always been surrounded by air, you wouldn’t think to credit it for your very existence either. But I’ve spent much of my life gasping for breath, so I promise you, it’s true. Friends are like oxygen.”
― Sally Hepworth, Mad Mabel

“Tears
The crystal rags
Viscous tatters
of a worn-through soul”
― Maya Angelou

“When your mama is in heaven there is nothing to stop her from loving you - not a man, not a job, not whatever she wanted to be doing but she had kids instead. When the sun shines, you can feel that pure love on you. It tastes like sugarcane.”
― Tayari Jones, Kin