Tammara Webber quotes:

I'm a hopeful romantic who adores novels with happy endings, because there are enough sad endings in real life.

I don't believe there's a reason for everything, and having faith doesn't mean I'm blind. I believe people make poor choices. I believe bad things happen to good people. I believe there's evil in the word that I will never understand, but will never stop fighting.

Erin and I spent four hours shopping for dresses and shoes Tuesday night. She was going all out in her intention to make Chaz regret any decision he'd made that didn't include worshipping at her feet.

No matter what happened to any individual person, life was going on elsewhere. The first time Kennedy kissed me, it stood to reason that at the same time, other people were splitting up. And the night Kennedy broke my heart, somewhere--maybe right there in my dorm, other people were falling in love.

What will you do with them?" "Redo them in charcoal, probably." "And then?" "Tack them to my bedroom wall." Bedroom wall? "Who wouldn't want to wake up to this?

Look at me, Emma." Her eyes are full, the lids heavy. "Graham," she breathes. "I need you to hear me." Cradling her head in my hands, thumbs sweeping her tears away, I stare into her eyes. "I belong to you. There is no one else. All I want is to be where you are.

I kept my eyes open on the ride home. Peeking over Lucas's shoulder, i watched the scenery fly by-and it was exhilarating, not frightening. I trusted him. I had since that first night, when i let him drive me home.

I'd basically described myself: a quiet, studious bookworm who would go to bed at a decent hour. A non-partier who wouldn't bring a parade of boys through our room, or make it the floor headquarters for beer pong.

I tilt her chin up and bend my face to hers, silently praising every woman who's had a hand in making her who she is.

I used to think of two people in love like that. Like puzzle pieces, fitting together. But it's not like that at all. Love pulls a part of you out, and it pulls a part of him - like taffy, stretching but not separating. The tendrils of each one wrap around the other, until they meld together. One, but not quite. Separate, but not quite.

When you find yourself about to say something that crosses a line, something that could cause irreparable harm, sometimes the best you can do is just not say that thing.

Bonus: I now knew what Erin meant by lickable abs.

Erin was right. Apologies could come too late.

He stared down at me, and i examined his beautiful eyes up close, something i'd never tire of doing.

Time would not change what I was feeling--or not feeling. I'd had time, and though the ache from his desertion hadn't disappeared, it was decreasing. My future was blurry, yes, but I was beginning to imagine a future when I would no longer miss him at all.

I say I don't believe in love, but that's not really true - love is just the name of an emotion. It's like on steroids. It's lust with ethics.

ME: You 're a sick girl. ERIN: Guilty as charged. :)

Alcohol removes inhibitions. It doesn't trigger criminal violence where there was none before.

I was sure you 'd dropped the class, which made me selfishly ecstatic. Without even knowing i was doing it, i started looking for you on campus."

Erin you' re dangerous." "Iknow.

How did you know??? I'm Erin. I know all. ;)

Rather than raising his voice like everyone else, he leaned close to my ear and asked, "Dance with me?" I felt his warm breath and inhale the scent of his aftershave -something basic and male.

It isn't fair how I doubt him, and I wonder if he'll ever gather that my loss of faith extends further than I'd ever known it would, severing lines of trust and leveling my confidence like a city-flattening tornado.

I want it to be better than okay. You deserve better than okay.

Minus my relationship with Kennedy, I had no automatic invitation to Greek Parties or events, though Chaz and Erin could invite me to some stuff since I fell under the heading of acceptable things to bring to any party: alcohol and girls. Awesome. I'd gone from independent girlfriend to party paraphernalia.

I've changed since I've known you. Not because you made me into someone else - but because you showed me a path I'd never paid attention to, and I chose to follow it.

The key to lying skillfully is never lie to yourself.

Over the past three years, we'd become each other's habit. And though he'd broken his habit of me when he walked away, I'd not broken my habit of him.

I breathed him in, closing my mouth tight and inhaling the scent of him through my nose. I felt sheltered by him. Safe."

No offense to hot girls everywhere- but newsflash- there are hot girls everywhere.

But the scars are always there, waiting for something to poke them.

I've been known to slum it and shop in the gag-him-and-bag-him aisles, believe it or not.

The truth was, he now belonged only to my past, and it was time I begin to accept it, as much as it hurt to do so.

Love is not the absence of logicbut logic examined and recalculatedheated and curved to fitinside the contours of the heart

Not stupid. Overly trusting, maybe, but that reflects on his lack of trustworthiness, not on your intelligence.

I was so afraid of wanting too much that I couldn't trust her handing me a shot at getting it. I don't want to be that senselessly fearful ever again.

No matter what grief or loss takes place, most of life flows on all around us, as though nothing's changed. At some point in our sorrow, we each make a choice to sink or swim. There's no alternative.

She's the ulimate heroine, strong-willed and independent, intelligent, loyal, but at the same time, she's not flawless, she's not above mistakes, or falling in love.

I've started researching online journals for the project. Thanks for decoding Dr. Heller's notes before sending them to me. If you'd have forwarded them to me without a translation, I'd be searching for a tall building/overpass/water tower from which to yell "goodbye cruel world.

The night we met-I'm not like that guy." His jaw was rigid. "I know tha-" He placed a finger over my lips, his expression softening. "So I don't want you to feel pressured. Or overpowered. But I do, absolutely, want to kiss you right now. Badly.

Ugh! Erin. You have a one-track mind." She smiled deviously. "I prefer to think of it as target-driven.

A word of advice, though. This won't be the last time you have to deal with something in life that throws you off your game. In future courses, as well as in the real world--such as it is--professors and employers won't always be accommodating. We all have to--what's my daughter's terminology--suck it up and deal?

You 're so beautiful.

Alarmed, I realized what my visceral reaction implied: jealousy. Over a guy I barely knew, with whom I'd exchanged more saliva than sentences.

Almost every time i saw you, you were with him. But one day, you walked up to the building alone. I was holding the door for several girls in front of you, and i waited for you to catch up. When you reached me, you look pleased, and a little surprised. Unlike the others, you didn't expect the door to be held for you by some random guy. You smiled up at me and said, 'Thank you.' That was the last straw. I prayed you 'd never come to a session, and not with him. I didn't want you to know i was the tutor.

And I'm okay, I really am, most of the time. But sometimes, I'm just not.

And then she told me she didn't want someone who needed her in order to be a better guy. She wanted someone who was better by himself, with or without her.

As for being somewhere you're not supposed to be--Maybe you're here for a reason, or there is no reason.

As we lay in the semi-dark hours later, we faced each other, sharing his pillow. I'd never felt more connected to anyone.

But even if you have what everyone else wants- if it isn't what you want, it isn't what you want

But I'll say this, if what looks like the facts of the matter are conflicting with your feelings, then you need more information before deciding

But just because you're strong and resilient doesn't mean you never need someone to be there for you, to take care of you.

But why?" "You heard the pay, right? And also, to be near you." Thumbing a tear from my cheek, he added, "Mostly, to be near you.

Chivalry isn't really dead you know." "Oh?" "Nah. That guy's just an asshole.

Choosing to be with you, isn't a difficult decision, Jacqueline...It's easy. Incredibly easy.

Did that hurt? On your lip?" "Not too much. I said a few choice four-letter words, though.

Every moment was a before and an after. Every moment was a now to be lived.

Everyone isn't logical. Everything doesn't make sense in the end. Sometimes you have to forget about explanations or excuses and leave people and places behind, because otherwise they will drag you straight down.

Few of us can actually change the world. We can only change ourselves. But if enough people took that to heart, the world would change.

First, this is a great job, and i'm excited about it." "Second, i'm ambitious, but i can succeed almost everywhere." "What I can't do anywhere is be with you." "Choosing to be with you isn't a difficult decision, Jacqueline. It's easy. Incredibly easy.

Good God, what did he not remember?

Graham runs a hand through his hair and takes a deep breath. Finally, with a determined scowl, he crosses the room. His hands grip my shoulders. "We are not," his voice is a gentle tremor, "breaking up

Growing up with my dad taught me to either lie like a pro or not bother.

He brushed my tears from my face. "How did I find you?

He laughed, and the sound reduced the pain of every sore place on my body to the dullest ache.

He stuck the pencil over his ear, looking unconvinced. "Mmm. What position would you be the most comfortable for you?" I couldn't say aloud the answers that popped into my head at that question, but the flush that spread across my face like wildfire gave me away. He caught his lower lip in his teeth, and I was sure it was to contain a laugh. Most comfortable position? What about with my head stuck under a pillow?

He took one of my hands in his, and I brought the other to his face, wondering how his eyes could look like chipped ice and still warm me to my core.

He was in a slow-motion mood-one of my favorites, though it meant i'd be driven crazy before we were done.

He's already chasing you. Now all you have to do is keep running. Just not too fast.

His breath in my ear, he ran his tongue along the curved edge, sucking the fleshy lobe and my small diamond stud into his mouth, and my eyes drifted closed while I babbled a weak sound of longing.

His hands reached for me, gripping my hipbones and pulling me forward. he stared down at me, his voice low. "There are some things I will make time for, Jacqueline.

How could I not love you? No one has ever affected me like you do. When you told me goodbye last month, I tried to let you go. I told myself it was the best thing for you because you wanted it. But you're wrong, Dori. I'm good for you even if you don't know it yet. I know because I've never been good for anyone before.

I belong to you. There is no one else. All I want is to be where you are.

I breathed him in, closing my mouth tight and inhaling the scent of him through my nose. I felt sheltered by him. Safe.

I could never be afraid of you.

I didn't realize I was frozen in place until a classmate shouldered into me, knocking my heavy backpack from my shoulder. "'Scuse me," he grumbled, his tone more Get out of the way than Sorry I ran into you. As I bent to retrieve my backpack, praying Kennedy and his fangirl hadn't seen me, a hand grasped the strap and swung the pack up from the floor. I straightened and looked into clear gray-blue eyes. "Chivalry isn't really dead, you know.

I don't know why it's so hard for me to say those three words. Most guys throw it around like breath, like bait.

I had to stop linking every single thing that happened to me with Kennedy. Realization dawned then, that he was still my default. Over the past three years, we'd become each other's habit. And though he'd broken his habit of me when he walked away, I'd not broken my habit of him. I was still tethering him to my present, to my future. The truth was, he now belonged only to my past, and it was time I began to accept it, as much as it hurt to do so.

I miss you Emma." I'm not sure, but it looks like her eyes tear up. "I was fine for months without you," she says, the words hushed and forlorn. "Why does it hurt now?" I'm sighing and shoving a hand through my hair, which I know from experience leaves strands of it stabbing out in numerous directions, defiant and crazy-looking. Maybe crazy is exactly how I feel. "Because now we have hope of something more.

I never wanted you to get hurt, but i wanted to take you from him.

I noticed you the first week. Not just because of how pretty you are, though of course, that played into it. It was the way you lean onto your elbows when you 're listening in class, when something catches your interest. And when you laugh, it's never to get attention, it's just-laughter. The way you obssevively tuck your hair behind your ear on the left side, but let the right side fall down like a screen. And when you 're bored, you tap your foot soundlessly and move your fingers on the desktop like you 're playing an instrument. I wanted to sketch you.

I opened my mouth wide one time to see if the words I was thinking would fall out, but they wouldn't. If words don't want to come out, they don't. I don't understand when people say things and then they say, I didn't mean to say that. Words don't just fall out. You have to push them out. And sometimes, you can't push them out, even if you want to.

I shrugged. "I guess that guys who'd never do something like that have a hard time believing some other guy would," I said, but I could see her point. Awareness and apologies were fine and good, but they could come too late.

I suppose love is never a sure thing, no matter what words are spoken. Love requires a leap of faith into the abyss, every time.

I take it this is one of the ones crushing on you." "What? They all crush on me. I'm a hot college girl, remember?" I laughed and his eyes burned into mine. He leaned in close and whispered into my ear. "So hot. Now you've got me thinking what you looked like this morning, when i woke up with you in my arms, in my bed. Would it be too greedy to ask you to stay tonight, too?" "I was afraid you weren't going to ask.

I thought about texting Lucas, but what would i say? That i'd tossed and turned all night, thinking of his hands on me?

I thought I dreamed you." The words whisper from my parched throat. His head tilts to one side, his mouth shifting to something less sarcastic, more amused. "That may be the most enchanting thing I've ever been told after spending the night with a girl.

I try to be rational and suppress the hope that this is for real, but hope has a way of closing its eyes to reason and it just keeps growing.

I want to see your tattoos." "You do, huh?

I wanted to tell you that I just--I miss you. And maybe that sounds ridiculous--like we barely know each other, but between the emails and texts and... everything else, I felt like we did. Like we do. and I miss--I don't know how else to say it--I miss both of you.

I was sure you 'd dropped the class, which made me selfishly ecstatic. Without even knowing i was doing it, i started looking for you on campus.

I watched him pull his t-shirt over his head. I could put hin on replay doing that and watch it all day...

I've come to ask how you do it. How you feel what I know you're feeling and then walk away like that.

I'd always disparaged the games people played in pursuit of love--or the next hook up. The whole thing was a competition to see who could get how far, and I could never figure out if there was more luck or skill involved, or some unknowable combination of the two. People rarely said what they thought, or revealed how they felt. No one was honest.

If someone had asked, "How does this compare to kissing Kennedy?" I would have answered, "Who?

I'm going to arrange you, if that's okay?" I swallowed. "Uh... sure." My hands were clutched to my ribcage, my shoulders hunched almost to my ears. What, this isn't how you want me positioned?

I'm gonna make that asshole gnaw his own hand off that night, dammit.

I'm trying to protect you. From myself. I don't do..." he swung a finger back and forth between us"...this.

It was as though he didn't exist, and then suddenly, he was everywhere.

It's not that i don't want you. I lied, earlier, when i said i was protecting you. I'm protecting myself. I don't want to be your rebound, Jacqueline." "Then why are you assuming that role? It's not what i want, either." "What am i gonna do with you?" "I can think of a couple things.

Jackie?" "It wasn't your fault.

Keep looking at me," she said, laughing as though we were having an amusing conversation. "He's staring at you. And I mean staring. That boy is undressing you with his eyes. Can you feel it?" Her expression was triumphant. Could I feel his stare? I can now, thanks, I thought.

Landon Loucas Maxfield was asleep on his sofa. With me.

Look - guys are dogs. Women have known this since the beginning of time. Guys don't want to be chased; they chase. So if you're going to catch one, you have to know how to make him chase you.

Lucas: I wanted to talk to you after class, but you disappeared. Me: I have another class right after. One of those profs who stops talking, stares at you and waits until you get to your seat if you're late. Lucas: I would probably just walk to my seat even slower. ;)

LUCAS: I've done a couple from memory but they aren't the same. Can't quite get the shape of your jaw. The line of your neck. And your lips. I need to spend more time staring at them and less time tasting them. ME: I can't say i agree with that notion. LUCAS: More of both, then.

maybe i'm exacly where i should be after all.

My last coherent thought, as Lucas took his time kissing and touching every part of me he could reach and my body arched into his, was: oh... so this is what all the fuss is about.

Not. Your. Fault." I nodded again, holding onto his words like they were redemption.

Now don't laugh 'cause I just might be...the soft curve in your hardline. (from the song "Hardliners" by Holcombe Waller)

Oh No! My wings are effed up!

oh... so this is what all the fuss is about.

Ooh, J, he's got ink too." "Just when i didn't think he could get any hotter...

People feel the need to choose sides when a relationship splits - it's human nature.

People rarely said what they thought, or revealed how they felt. No one was honest.

Please touch me. I need you to touch me.

Really, he could have just punched me in the stomach, because my brain refused to comprehend the words he was saying. A physical assault, it might have understood.

Say stop, whenever you want to stop. Understand?" I nodded. "Do you want to stop now?" My head moved back and forth to the pillow. "Thank God.