I wonder if fears ever really go away, or if they just lose their power over us. - Veronica Roth

When her body first hit the net, all I registered was a gray blur. I pulled her across it and her hand was small, but warm, and then she stood before me, short and thin and plain and in all ways unremarkable- except that she had jumped first. The stiff had jumped first.
Even I didn't jump first.
Her eyes were so stern, so insistent.
Beautiful.

Can I ask why you’re throwing knives at cheese?’
‘Caleb came by to discuss something,’ Tobias says, leaning his head against the wall as he looks at me. ‘And knife-throwing just came up somehow.’
‘As it so often does,’ I say, a small smile inching across my face.

We are not people who touch each other carelessly; every point of contact between us feels important, a rush of energy and relief.