The Road Trip Quotes
"Shit the bed," Deb says beside me. "Are you all right?"
"Everything seems to slow or quieten or fade, like someone’s dialed the world down."
"I know those eyes will be as wide and shocked as they were when he left me."
"The Mini. The car. Everything comes rushing back in and I unclick my seat belt."
"Rodney posted on the ‘Cherry & Krish Are Getting Hitched’ Facebook group yesterday evening asking for a lift to the wedding from the Chichester area."
"Some arsehole in a Mercedes went into the back of us," Deb tells him, straightening up to look at the car behind again.
"I want to do everything at once: run to him, run away, curl up, cry."
"Fuck me," says Marcus. "A Mini! The indignity of it!"
"Do you know how many times I’ve totaled one of my dad’s cars? He won’t even notice."
"It’s such a long journey, Deb," I say, pressing my fists to my eyes. "Hours and hours stuck in the same car with Dylan."
"I’m not saying do it," Deb points out. "I’m saying let’s go."
"I know who I am and what I want. I don’t need some guy to make me complete, or whatever it is they’re meant to do."
"But what about kids? Don’t you want them?" "Nope."
"I’m trying to find somebody, and I think you might be able to help?"
"You’re going to break the fridge door, by the way."
"You have a lovely singing voice. No. Of course not. You’re rubbish."
"And I’m not rude. I’m . . . blunt. It’s charming."
"Listening? Hmm. I have spent much of the last two days loudly reciting lines from _The Faerie Queene."
"Funny how my father never phones me himself, given how terribly sorry he is."
"She’s whimsical," I say eventually. "She likes to keep people guessing."
"I realized I was a little, uh . . . That some of the relationships in my life weren’t entirely healthy."
"You strike me as a man who gets driven more than he drives."
"It’s my sister’s least favorite place around here. She hates heights."
"I thought it would make it easier. To . . . It’s not been the easiest couple of years."
"The only time I’ve ever fallen in love was when the midwife handed me my son."
"It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a vineyard to homeschool one."
"I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss, There never was a bargain better driven."
"Everyone you know goes to Oxford University," Addie points out. "And, by definition, thinks too hard."
"She had it even then, Before I heard her name."
"You care about doing your job properly. Even though it’s just me and Terry here, you’re still on top of everything, noticing every detail."
"You’re going to break my heart, Dylan Abbott. I can feel it."
"It’s about all this. You’re just good at life. All of the important bits."
"It’s safe in here! There are walls and locked doors between us and the murderers!"
"It’s a humbling realization: this is love, then. That explains a great deal about many irrational acts throughout history—every man who ever went to war must have really fancied somebody."
"I love the look of the dark, messy parts of you, the fun parts. But Dylan wants a good girl."
"It’s such a bizarre, torturous thing to be pressed up against the one person whose body I know almost as well as my own, to have my thigh sliding against hers, and not even be able to place my hand on her arm."
"You’re too complicated for someone like Dylan. Far too interesting."
"This summer’s when you wake up, isn’t it, and you’re only just getting started. You’re just beginning to play around, and he’s nearly ready to give up and settle down and say, This is who I am, I’m done."
"I’m not playing around. I don’t know where you got that idea from."
"We could never tell when you liked a poem. You never told me that. I always liked them."
"I’ve made something of an art of it, actually."
"The power he has is mine / given, and now I choose / to take it back."
"You deserve someone who wants you for who you really are, and doesn’t try to turn you into somebody else."
"You only ever have to ask, and I’m here. Always."
"I thought I’d leave France and take that with me, but I left it there with her."
"This summer’s about figuring out what you want, right? So go figure. And then come find me when you’re done."
"I’m beginning to think my life thus far has been one long string of poorly made decisions and very foolish mistakes, except for the day I knocked on your door."
"You’re not an idiot. You gambled and lost, that’s all. Or, you know, Deb did."
"But if I’ve learned anything over the last year or two, it’s that there’s no one way of dealing with pain."
"What do I do?! First things first, you probably need to drive faster than ten miles per hour. Or we might all die."
"When they’re bad for you. It’s like any relationship, romantic or friendship or family or whatever. If it’s toxic, you should walk away."
"Nobody knows what they’re doing. Lie back. You need to get your whole body in the water. You should stop thinking so hard, Dylan. You’re your own worst enemy."
"To be true to yourself, you have to have a sense of self to work with."
"I’ve always had your back, haven’t I? Then listen to me when I say this is what you want."
"Heavy-handed heat / Drumbeat, a Coke can skits between his feet."
"But I’m climbing out again. Marcus is already in the front passenger seat. I glance sidelong at him as I settle behind the wheel. He’s slumped down in the seat like a bored kid, but when I wince as I try to let off the handbrake he flinches and his hand is over mine in half a second."
""Nobody needs to be led," I say sharply, as I turn to make my way to the desk. "And he’s perfectly capable of finding his own way.""
"It’s been a week since I saw Marcus in A&E—Dylan was fine, no concussion—and there Marcus was again last night, at Cherry’s birthday drinks."
""It’s complicated," I say. "Just leave it, Marcus.""
""I know. I know." I rub my eyes with my good hand. "But maybe I’m just seeing what I want to see.""
""I hate when people say shit like I think I’ll always love you when they’re breaking up with someone, because, like . . . in that case, why aren’t you still together? But with Dylan . . .""
""Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong,’" Deb says. "That was Gandhi, that was.""
""The world’s full of dreamers," he says. "Practicality is underrated. You take these kids as they are. That’s what’ll make you a great teacher.""
""Do you know how easy it would be for someone else to take her off you right now?""
""What the fuck?" he says. "What is this place? Pizza and cooked breakfasts?" He looks genuinely nonplussed. "Is it, like, fusion?""
"Sometimes, it is really, really hard to be a good friend to you. I have been a paragon of restraint and you haven’t a bloody clue, have you? Well, fuck it."
"Sometimes you don’t know what you want until you nearly have it."
"It’s the last step to freedom, letting go of that money, but I know too that my father’s money is freedom, and by giving it up, I’m signing up to some of the toughest years of my life."
"What if I screw up so badly I drive her to someone else?"
"That’s what friends do, Ads. Come on. What would you do if it was Cherry? Or Deb?"
"I can’t seem to get my head straight. I love you both, and you’re both telling me opposite things."
"The snoring? Or the creepiness? He’s just so tragic."
"There’s nothing lovelier than making Addie laugh."
"My heart is beating everywhere, right down to the fingertips beneath her hand."
"We’re two jigsaw pieces slotting into place."
"Forgiving me, she says, so quietly I almost don’t catch it."
"I can’t do this anymore, I feel like it’s driving me insane."
"Let’s just enjoy the last few minutes in this bed, and we can deal with the real world when we get out of it."
"I knew it was a mistake to leave the dastardly planning to you ladies."
"My cool bag was in that car, Now where the hell am I meant to store this?"
"We just need to find a way to get to the wedding."
"It’s the deadpan delivery, Don’t blame yourself."
"We’re desperate, Long shots are all we’re going to get."
"Fifteen minutes. I can cope with another fifteen minutes."
"The Mini is in the car park," Marcus says, pointing. "Looks like Rodney's parked up and gone inside."
"Don’t ever get married, Dylan. It turns you into a monster."
"She’s a better person than you or I could ever be," Marcus says.
"All entirely useless knowledge, I can assure you. Left," Dylan says.
"I’ve never stopped loving you, and I really don’t think I ever will."
"You always pushed me to make my own choices," Dylan says.
"It’s all entirely useless knowledge, I can assure you. Left," Dylan says.