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1 " I was naked under his gaze. Skin was just that: skin. But to see your soul stripped, laid bare for the eyes of someone you barely knew-that was terrifying. "
― Whitney Barbetti , Ten Below Zero
2 " Love, the emotion that should elicit healing, was in fact the most painful emotion of them all. It crept in when you didn’t want it. Made itself at home, terrorizing your hormones with confusion. It made you more susceptible to pain, it weakened your resolve while simultaneously making you frantic with need. And it hurt. Not just mentally, but physically. "
3 " I don't want to merely exist, Parker. I want to live. I want to leave the world with that one sweet moment. "
4 " Words could bite. When I spoke to strangers, I wanted my words to have fangs. "
5 " Take this wine glass for example. If I had poured milk into it and told you it was wine, would you be upset when you took the first sip, expecting the bite of fermented grapes and getting milk instead?”“I like milk.”Everett fought a smile. “I do too. But I also like to know what’s coming. It all boils down to control. "
6 " I am. I’m rude because I don’t conform to society’s standards that white lies are inconsequential. I don’t believe in hiding behind words that aren’t truthful. I’m an impatient man. I don’t beat around the bush. If you ask me something, I won’t lie to you. "
7 " I so desperately wanted to be his gravity, to hold him on this earth and keep him from leaving me. "
8 " I'm not talking about the scars that separate your skin, Parker. I'm not blind, I can see those. I'm talking about the scars much deeper than that. The scars that exist within you. The ones you actually try to hide. "
9 " I don't love anything." - Parker "I know." - Everett "
10 " I don’t need a thousand people to know I existed. I just want someone to know I lived. "
11 " Don’t smile, Parker,” Everett said, leaning in to me. “It would look weird on your face. "
12 " Some of us have scars that aren't meant to be seen "
13 " In here, he said, pushing on the skin above my heart, you're ten below zero. And you're closer to death than I am. "
14 " My heart stirred in my chest and I knew, without hesitation, that this man would destroy me. The thought made me breathless. "
15 " I couldn't stop shaking my head. I didn't want this. I didn't want to draw people to me with my broken pieces. I wanted to be left alone among all those pieces, sitting in the middle of them so if people dared to come close, they'd cut themselves on all the pieces to get to me. "
16 " -It’s rude to stare.-I never claimed to be anything else. "
17 " It hurts, you know. Loving you. It hurts now. But I'd rather suffer through this pain in my final moments than suffer through being alone, from living a life unfilled. "
18 " You're ten below. Cold as ice. "
19 " Is that how you live your life? By people forcing you out of your comfort zone? Why not willingly put yourself in situations that make you uncomfortable?”“Why would anyone do that?” Our voices were getting louder, taking up space in the Jeep.“How do you expect to understand anything if you don’t take a step out of your comfort zone, if you don’t embrace the scary?”“I don’t need to understand anything.”“Then you’re not alive. You don’t want to feel, you don’t want to connect, you don’t want to exist outside of that big head of yours. I should have told you that you were six feet under instead.”“We don’t all have to live the way you think we should live.”“Of course not. But what is living, really? Are you going to spend the next sixty years of your life alone? You’ll die in your sleep and no one will know, no one will care. "
20 " JOY CAME ALWAYS AFTER PAIN. "
