Saving June Quotes
"According to the puppy-of-the-month calendar hanging next to the phone in the kitchen, my sister June died on a Thursday, exactly nine days before her high school graduation."
"The first time June showed it to me, around six months ago, she was at the stove, cooking something spicy smelling in a pan while I grabbed orange juice from the fridge."
"It’s harder than you think, to find someone who truly believes in your unequivocal, unconditional awesomeness, especially when you’re like me: unspectacular in every way."
"Girls like June are not supposed to do this. Girls who have their whole lives ahead of them."
"Life is now divided into two periods: With June and After June."
"The truth is, I don’t actually hold any personal grudge against Melinda. She’s nice enough, even if her button nose seems too small for her face and she has these moist eyes that make it look like she could cry at any moment."
"The house feels so much bigger and colder than it ever has."
"It’s sweet, really, that she almost burned down the house in a drunken stupor for the sake of my appetite. Fucked up, but sweet."
"I know I’m on the scrawny side, but seriously, this is getting ridiculous."
"Jesus probably wouldn’t approve, so of course, by proxy, Aunt Helen doesn’t, either."
"I haven’t cried at all, not once. Even when I try to summon tears, it’s like the well inside of me is bone-dry."
"You just have to take comfort in the fact June is with God now."
"It’s true. I can’t deny it. I haven’t cried at all, not once."
"I hate Aunt Helen. I hate her stupid your-sister’s-in-a-better-place crap."
"June liked classic rock. It should be an inconsequential detail."
"If I listen hard enough, I’ll decode some secret message."
"Maybe it’s just the battery? Or the water pump. It could be the water pump."
"The idea of running away to California is like a silver strand of hope."
"It’s quickly becoming clear that the only person I can lean on at all these days is Laney."
"I don’t care how hard it is for him. I don’t care if he’s uncomfortable in this house. I needed him, and if he couldn’t be there for me over something so important, what good is he at all?"
"You take me with you, or I swear I’ll tell your mother."
"This isn’t about leaving shit up to fate. This isn’t a game!"
"There is no fate," I say. "There’s what you do and what you don’t do."
"You have to write a note. Let her know you left on your own. Otherwise she’ll probably assume you’ve been kidnapped or some shit."
"It’s fast food for your ears. It doesn’t make you think. It isn’t even about anything—not anything real. Don’t you think music should say something?"
"You’d have to have no soul to not like Johnny Cash,"
"My presence means nothing. I’m invisible, or worse, a burden."
"You’re too pretty. You’re a delicate flower. They would’ve ripped you apart in there."
"Forget her. She thinks everything and everyone is overrated."
"Like you do before you’re old enough to worry about how dumb you’ll look to anyone else."
"Listening to Jake, though…I’m thawing. A little."
"I’m nothing. It’s so much bigger, bigger than me, bigger than my thoughts and my…my…"
"Just because you enjoy something doesn’t mean it’ll work out as a career."
"Funny that of all my answers, the last one seems the most unlikely."
"No one’s going to listen to us. What we do isn’t going to stop anything."
"I’m against people dying in general, so, yes."
"It’s better than empty numbness. Better than this anger that just sits in my chest, simmering but never boiling over."
"Why can’t I just feel things like a normal person?"
"I know you’re worried, but Jake’s right. It’d be useless to go back. He’s probably with Danny."
"If you run into people who know their stuff, they’ll at least refer you to Corinthians 6:9, or something else from the New Testament."
"It’d be easy to say that our final exchange was profound, meaningful, or at the very least amiable. No one would be any wiser."
"You need to experience everything she’ll never get to. It’s, like…a tribute, or something. Not living your life won’t help anyone."
"You’re overthinking this. Don’t look at the floor. Don’t think about it. Just move with me."
"This just doesn’t seem like your type of music."
"I’m starting to realize that nothing about you is as obvious as I thought."
"I know he’s joking, but the truth is, he is a complicated guy, more complicated than I ever would have guessed."
"So, you still think I have no sense of adventure?"
"I hate this. I hate feeling too much and not enough at the same time."
"If you really want things to change, you can make them change no matter where you are."
"You’re right. It’s not my business. You are free to do whatever you want with whomever you want. It really doesn’t matter to me."
"These are the people worth caring about, who won’t hurt you or let you down."
"It’s just me and my heartbeat in my ears and the sound of the ocean and the sky above it."
"Every muscle aches, my heart most of all. I am throbbing with how much I miss her."
"I want to stop running away from everything. I want to find something to run toward."
"A divine combination of caffeine and sheer force of will."
"Parents are supposed to protect you, but they seem to be really, really lousy at it."
"It’s a lie and she knows it, and she knows I know she knows it, but she won’t call me out on it."
"You cannot be in love with someone you’ve really only known for barely a week."
"You can only cover a bullet hole with a Band-Aid for so long."
"I want this, and Jake— I don’t have to ask him twice."
"It’s weird how easily the story spills out of me; starting is the hardest part, but once I have, I don’t even have to think about it."
"You can stay here. Of course you can stay here."
"I’ll help," I volunteer. I feel such a rush of gratitude toward her that I would do anything she asked.
"People aren’t born that way; I know I wasn’t."
"We were young. I guess I thought I could save him."
"People like that… People who don’t want to be found? They’re usually really good at staying lost."
"I don’t know what would be worse: being an orphan by accident or being abandoned by choice."
"Cooking’s kind of like riding a bike, or having sex. You never really forget."
"She made me promise to get my shit together—no drinking, no getting in trouble, no blowing off school. So I did. Because she believed I could do it."
"Mix CDs will never go out of style. I like having something tangible, you know? And making mixes is a craft. Like storytelling."
"Everything that was left of my sister is gone. Except not, because I have sixteen years’ worth of memories, and they mean more than bone and ash ever could."
"There is so much beauty in just existing. In being alive."
"You’re the one going through all this and you still put Laney first every time, instead of throwing yourself the pity party we both know you deserve."
"I love you. You know that, right? I love you."