For the longest time after that, neither of us said anything. I was unaccustomed to his silence, but I didn't mind it. I knew near everything about h… - Gabrielle Zevin

I knew near everything about him, and he knew near everything about me, and all that made our quiet a kind of song. The kind that you hum without even knowing what it is or why you're humming it. The kind that you've always known.

Can I ask you something?" you said. "How did you ever survive that scandal?"

She said, "I refused to be shamed."

"How did you do that?" you asked.

"When they came at me, I kept coming," she said.

No one will ever love me that much again.

I've been blue, lately," Sam admitted. "And I wondered, how do you get over that sort of thing?" "Work helps," Sadie said. "Games help. But sometimes, when I'm really low, I keep a particular image in my mind." "What is it?" "I imagine people playing. Sometimes, it's one of our games, but sometimes, it's any game. The thing I find profoundly hopeful when I'm feeling despair is to imagine people playing, to believe that no matter how bad the world gets, there will always be players.