"You're the most incredible girl I've ever known. You're gorgeous and smart, and you make me laugh like no-one else can. And I can talk to you. And I know after all this I don't deserve you, but what I'm trying to say is that I love you, Anna. Very Much."

"I bought you love poetry! 'I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.' I blink at him. 'Neruda. I starred the passage. God,' he moans. 'Why didn't you open it?"

"Imagine,' she said, after registering, 'a whole city of gorgeous Italian guys. They can say anything to me, and it'll be sexy.' 'You'll be so easy,' Rashmi said. 'Would you like-ah to order-ah the spa-ghe-tti? 'Oh, do me, Marco!"

"The way he looked at you? He wasn't distracted. He was consumed."

"I pull back, gasping for breath. Reeling. His breath is ragged, and I place my hands on his cheeks to steady him. 'Is this okay?' I whisper. 'Are you okay?'His reply is anguished. Honest. 'I love you."

"The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you."

"He's exasperated. 'I'm saying I'm in love with you! I've been in love with you this whole bleeding year!"

"But that's not quite right either.I miss Paris, but it's not home. It's more like... I miss this. This warmth over the telephone. Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place? Bridgette used to be home to me. Maybe St. Clair is my new home.I mull this over as our voices grow tired and we stop talking. We just keep each other company. My breath. His breath. My breath. His breath.I could never tell him, but it's true.This is home. The two of us."

"We straighten , bu our snickering is barely contained as we attempt to focus our attention on a picture of a discarded Coke can. 'This guy's lady love is kind of a slob, don't you think?' he whispers.I cover my mouth with my hands again.'A reaaaaaaaal litterbug.'Stop it,' I hiss. My eyes are watering. 'Ohmygod look at this one! How did he get her toenail clippings?'If you were my girl,' he whispers, 'I'd take creepy pictures of your trash when I knew you weren't looking.'If you were my girl,' I whisper back,' I'd put the creepy pictures in a foreign museum so you wouldn't know that I take creepy pictures."

"I mean . . . I don't know. I don't know what I want to do, or who I want to be, or where I want to live. I don't know. I like reading about adventure, sure, but I also like doing it from the safety of home. But what is home, besides a quilt-covered bed? Where is it?"

"That's the thing about depression. When I feel it deeply, I don't want to let it go. It becomes a comfort. I want to cloak myself under its heavy weight and breathe it into my lungs. I want to nurture it, grow it, cultivate it. It's mine. I want to check out with it, drift asleep wrapped in its arms and not wake up for a long, long time."

"Some of us wear our hearts. Some of us carry them."

"Life isn't about what you get, it's about what you DO with what you get."

"Autumn is coming. For as long as I can remember, I've talked to the moon. Asked her for her guidance. There's something deeply spiritual about her waxing and waning. She wears a new dress every evening, yet she's always herself.And she's always there."

"Thank you for helping my sister, he says.I lean forward, mimicking his position. 'I'm happy to.Calliope leans out her window. 'STOP FLIRTING AND GET BACK TO WORK."

"It's so Hogwarts."

"And then I turn another corner, and my chest constricts so tightly, so painfully, that I can no longer breathe. Because there he is. He's engrossed in an oversize book, hunched over and completely absorbed. A breeze ruffles his dark hair, and he bites his nails. . . . Several other people are soaking up the rare sunshine, but as soon as they're registered, they're forgotten. Because of him. I grip the edge of a sidewalk café table to keep from falling. The diners stare in alarm, but I don't care. I'm reeling, and I gasp for air. How can I have been so stupid? How could I have ever for a moment believed I wasn't in love with him?"

"I'd like to point out that we've had zero problem reaching each other's mouths."

"Finally, I laugh. Genuine and normal sounding. And then my date says the best thing that he couldpossibly say: 'It's okay. I haven't been on one of these [dates] in a while either.My smile triples in size.Josh grins. 'Just give me your hand.'W"what?'Your hand, he repeats. 'Give it to me.I extend my shaking right hand. And " in a moment that is a hundred dreams come true " JoshuaWasserstein laces his fingers through mine. A staggering shock of energy shoots straight into myveins. Straight into my heart.'There, he says. 'I've been waiting a long time to do that."

"We'll be together. We both got our Point Zéro wishes - each other. He said he wished for me every time. He was wishing for me when I entered the tower."

"And we're finally home."

"I get out of the car, and I'm blasted by the stench of body odor. Cricket is beside me, and he's talking, but his words don't reach my ears.Because it's my mother.Smelling.On my porch."

"I just can't fathom why anyone would stand on a ledge when there's a respectable amount of walking space right next to it."

"Crushes are so awful. I wonder if they suck worse for the crush-er or the crush-ee. I consider my three years of watching Josh from afar. Yeah, definitely the crush-er."

"For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home."

"It's become impossible to deny he means something to me."

"Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?"

"A blank canvas...has unlimited possibilities."

"I said you were beautiful. I slept in your bed!"

"To: Anna Oliphant
From: Étienne St. Clair
Subject: So . . . Does that mean I can call you now?"

"Well, bloody noses.' I hug his coat tighter. 'Those are definitely hot."

"So why did he do it?'Cricket rakes a hand through his hair. 'For the same reason everyone makes mistakes. He fell in love."

"It gets worse. Josh tell her that he loves her. She says it back. He touches her. She touches him back. And then they're losing their virginity on the floor of her bedroom beside her pet rabbit, Isis. A rabbit.Josh literally lost his virginity in front of a metaphor for sex."

"We're enveloped in pitch black. 'Wait here,' I whisper.'Are you getting your ax?'Handcuffs.'Kinky. But, okay, I'll try it."

"I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul."

"Okay, I've lied to him. But you saw how jealous he gets. It makes me feel like I have to. And I shouldn't defend my right to be friends with another guy."

"Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is to not make the same mistake twice."

"The only French word I know is oui, which means 'yes, and only recently did I learn it's spelled o-u-i and not w-e-e."

"We can't stop smiling at each other. I can't believe that adults get to do this every day. And I don't even mean sex, though it's wonderful, but things like this. Brushing our teeth at the same sink. Do adults realize how lucky they are? Or do they forget that these small moments are actually small miracles? I don't want to ever forget."

"French name, English accent, American school. Anna confused."

"You've crafted this bored veneer, but you're always giving yourself away in moments like that. In the moments that really matter."

"I didn't know it was possible to simultaneously hate and ache for someone."

"I don't know what I want to do, or who I want to be, or where I want to live. It's like everyone else has their entire future mapped out except for me."

"He snuffles. Oh, no.He's not going to cry, is he? Because even though it's sweet when guys cry, I am so not prepared for this.Girl scouts didn't teach me what to do with emotionally unstable drunk boys."

"I look at you, and I think about you, and ... I don't know. No one has ever confounded me the way you do."

"I spent the period reading the first novel assigned for English. And wow. If I hadn't realized I was in France yet, I do now. Because Like Water for Chocolate has sex in it. LOTS of sex."

"Andy once clipped a magazine article about how black dogs are always the last to be adopted at shelters and, therefore, more likely to be put down. Which is totally Dog Racism, if you ask me."

"Confidence, darling.' He leans across the table and touches a finger to my cheek. 'You could learn something from me, you know."

"How could I wish for it for so long, only to come back and find it gone. To be here, in my technical house, and discover that home is now someplace different."

"St. Clair gets a crush on Anna. He's torn between her and Ellie, and he spends so much time running between them that he hardly has time left for Josh. And the more time that Josh spends alone, the more he realizes how alone he actually is. All of his friends will be gone the next year. Josh grows increasingly antagonistic toward school, which makes Rashmi increasingly antagonistic toward him, which makes him increasingly antagonistic toward her. And she's upset because Elie dropped her as a friend, and Meredith is upset because now St. Clair likes two girls who aren't her, and Anna is upset because St. Clair is leading her on, and then St. Clair's mom gets cancer. It's a freaking soap opera."