“Youre crowding me. I need room…. What i needed were boundaries. I needed willpower. I needed to be caged up, since yet again i was proving i couldnt be trusted in patchs presence. I should have been bolting for the door, and yet i wasnt.”

He’s got the whole bad-boy-in-need-of-redemption thing going on, but the catch is, most bad boys don’t want redemption. They like being bad. They like the power they get from striking fear and panic into the hearts of mothers everywhere

Im not going to kill you, nora. I dont kill people who are important to me. And you top the list.

His smile was sexy and warned of trouble, but i’d made up my mind that not all trouble was bad.

That was a good fight back in the gym, he said. But i think you could benefit from a few more boxing lessons.

For someone whos made it clear that her life is superior to every other students at this school, you sure make it a habit of pursuing every facet of our boring, worthless lives.

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.

Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.

The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.

I make music with no boundaries.

I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow.

I think it’s important to set up that boundary of respect for your kids at a young age, so they will know, I better listen to Mommy.

Boundaries. Set them & then KEEP them.

Humans need breaks. Humans need to cry. Humans need to feel mad, sad, happy, and all the emotions in between. And humans need to have boundaries. 

Growth has taught me to apologize when i am to blame, but not to say sorry when i shouldn’t feel ashamed.