Home > Work > The Upside of Unrequited (Simonverse, #2)
21 " There’s just something terrifying about admitting you like someone. In a way, it’s actually easier when there’s no chance of anything happening. But there’s this threshold where things suddenly become possible. And then your cards are on the table. And there you are, wanting, right out in the open. "
― Becky Albertalli , The Upside of Unrequited (Simonverse, #2)
22 " I mean, here’s the thing I don’t get. How do people come to expect that their crushes will be reciprocated? Like, how does that get to be your default assumption? "
23 " So, maybe I should let my heart break, just to prove that my heart can take it. "
24 " You would matter. That's the thing. I get into this weird place sometimes where I worry about that. I've never told anyone this - not my moms, not Cassie - but that's the thing I'm most afraid of. Not mattering. Existing in a world that doesn't care who I am. "
25 " Even if he likes me, I’m not sure he’d like me naked. I hate that I’m even thinking that. I hate hating my body. Actually, I don’t even hate my body. I just worry everyone else might. Because chubby girls don’t get boyfriends, and they definitely don’t have sex. Not in movies—not really—unless it’s supposed to be a joke. And I don’t want to be a joke. "
26 " I'm on the toilet at the 9:30 Club and I'm wondering how mermaids pee. "
27 " I’m not trying to overthink things. I’m trying to be less careful. But you have to be your heart’s own goalie. "
28 " I think every relationship is actually a million relationships. "
29 " I don’t feel like doing anything. I don’t even know what I need right now. I just want to feel normal. "
30 " I mean, I think people have this mentality that sex is only real if it involves a penis. "
31 " I want to know what it feels like to have crushes that could conceivably maybe one day turn into boyfriends. "
32 " But it's not quite so raw. You know, when you're seventeen, everything feels like the end of the world. Or the beginning of the world. And that's an awesome thing. "
33 " It’s just a lot of me. Way too much of me. "
34 " Here’s a frustrating thing about me: if everyone else is happy, I usually can’t stay pissed off. My moods are conformists. It sucks, because sometimes you really want to be angry. "
35 " And suddenly, I feel like crying, but not in a bad way. More like in the way you feel when someone gives you a perfect present—something you’d been wanting, but thought you couldn’t ask for. It’s that feeling of someone knowing you in all the ways you needed to be known. "
36 " Here's the thing: I'm used to being told I have a pretty face. Or pretty hair, or pretty eyes. But it's different, being called beautiful. Just beautiful, without conditions. "
37 " I guess it’s just this feeling that my body is secretly all wrong. Which means any guy who assumes I’m normal is going to flip his shit if we get to the point of nakedness. Whoa. Nope. Not what I signed up for. "
38 " Certain nights have this kind of electricity. Certain nights carry you to a different place from where you started. "
39 " Okay, I just gotta say it." The guy touches my arm. "You are fucking gorgeous for a big girl."I freeze."It's a compliment!"I look at him. "Fuck you. "
40 " But you know, there’s an upside here. Because when you spend so much time just intensely wanting something, and then you actually get the thing? It’s magic.” All "