Lauren Oliver

It will kill me, it will kill me, it will kill me. And I don’t care.

“And I love you too.” His fingers skate the edge of my jaw, dance briefly over my lips. “You should know that. You have to know that.”

I open my mouth and say, “I love you too.”

I understand that he gave her up for a reason. He gave her up so she could be saved, even though it killed him to let her go.

I love you. Remember. They cannot take it.

He holds my hand the whole way and we stop to kiss twice again in the longest, deepest shadows we can find. Both times I wish the shadows were solid, had weight, and they would fold down around us and bury us there so we could stay like that forever, chest to chest, lip to lip. Both times I feel my chest seize up when he pulls away and takes my hand and we have to start walking again, not kissing, like suddenly I can only breathe correctly when we are.