Jenny Han: Likeness (page 2)

“I used to believe. I used to think that if I wanted it bad enough, wished hard enough, everything would work out the way It was supposed to. Destiny, like Susannah said.”

“If this is love, no thanks. I don’t want any part of it. When I’m older, I’m just going to do my own thing. If I like a boy, fine, I’ll date him, but I’m not going to sit at home and cry over him. I cry over important things.”

“What must it be like, to have a boy like you so much he cries for you?”

“To belong to someone—I didn’t know it, but now that I think about, it seems like that’s all I’ve ever wanted. To really be somebody’s, and to have them be mine.”

“He looks at me in such a way that I know for sure-he's never looked at another girl quite like this.
And the I'm in his arms, and we're hugging and kissing, and we're both shaking, because we both know-this is the night we become real.”

“Susannah continued. "If and when I go off slow dancing in the ever after, I don't want to look like I've been stuck in a hospital room my whole life. I at least want to be tan.”

“I loved the feeling of talking and having somebody really listen to what I have to say. It was like a high or something.”

“i worried he'd let go, but he didn't. We held hands like this the whole rest of the way home.”

“In the pool, on that last night of the last summer, we said we’d always come back. It’s scary how easy promises were broken. Just like that.”

“Why is it so hard to say no to him? Is this what it's like to be in love with somebody?”

“… When I get you back, I’m gonna put that necklace back around your neck and pin you.” He tries to hold my eyes with his own. 'Like the 1950s.”

“I’ve heard people say that the more you like someone, the more you think they are beautiful even if you didn’t think so in the beginning.”

“So are you gonna cry about it like a punk, or are you gonna do something?”

“He made it so hard not to love him. When he was sweet like this, I remembered why I did. Used to love him, I mean. I remembered everything.”

“Is it so impossible that Conrad Fisher would like me?”

“He kisses like… like it could be his job.” Margot giggles and lifts the spoons off her eyes. “Like a male prostitute?”

“Do you know what it's like to like someone so much you can't stand it and know that they'll never feel the same way? Probably not. People like you don't have to suffer through those kind of things.”

“It's scary when it's real. When it's not just thinking about a person, but, like, having a real live person in front of you, with, like, expectations. And wants.”

“I like the way he looks at me, like I am a wood nymph that he happened upon one day and just had to take home to keep.”