“You’re mine, angel, and don’t you forget it. Your fights are my fights. What if something bad had happened today? It was bad enough when i thought your ghost was haunting me; i don’t think i can handle the real thing.”

Dont panic, i thought. But already my breathing was faster, shallower. You mean you can feel happy or sad or desire. A barely-there smile.

I take my job seriously, which means i’m going to need to get acquainted with the subject matter on a personal level.

Lets be honest, nora. Youve got it bad for me.” his eyes held a lot of depth. “and ive got it bad for you.

I couldn’t picture myself with a boyfriend, but if i had to, i envisioned a nice normal guy who turned in his math homework on time and maybe even played rec baseball.

As in, i wouldn’t know normal if it marched up and poked me in the eye.

Say ‘provoking’ again. Your mouth looks provocative when you do.

The sensible part of me wanted to dissect my emotions, overthinking and overcomplicating my reaction to jev.

Don’t make me regret this” i said, breathless. ” you haven’t regretted me once”. He kissed me, and i answered so hungrily i thought my lips would bruise. Patch&nora ( p. 180)

Strangely enough, it wasnt gabe who was haunting my thoughts, though. That job belonged to a pair of sinfully black eyes that had lost their edge when they studied me, turning as soft and sultry as silk.

Citizen’s arrest,” he said. “well, that, and patch told me to.

Because i thought i was in love. And when you think you’re in love, you are willing to stick it out and make it work until it is love.

Wow. Nice bike, i said. Which was a lie. It looked like a glossy black death trap.

I got a new job. Patch locked eyes with me, and i warmed in a lot of places. In fact, i was dangerously close to feverish.

Maggots squirming in your eyeholes…And your other orifices, might be carrying things a bit too far.” “this is why i keep you around, rixon. Always seeing things from the bright side.

It isn’t about love,” vee said. “it’s about fun.

I’ll be firm,” i promised patch, adopting a no-nonsense expression. “no backing down.” by now patch was full-on grinning. He kissed me again, and i felt my mouth soften its resolve. “you look cute when you’re trying to be tough,” he said.

The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.

On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.

Prayer is a new, gracious, lasting will of the soul united and fast-bound to the will of God by the precious and mysterious working of the Holy Ghost.

If each dead person became a ghost, there’d be more than 100 billion of them haunting us all. Creepy, but cool.

I don’t want us to be together to drown the ghost of someone else.

The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.

You go from dream to dream inside me. You have passage to my last shabby corner, and there, among the debris, you’ve found life. I’m no longer sure which of all the words, images, dreams or ghosts are ‘yours’ and which are ‘mine.’ It’s past sorting out.

I pressed the dress to my nose, and found what was left of your ghost. It was then that I remembered how to cry.