The Plus One Quotes
"But, irrationally, it was a hell of a lot easier to ride the wave of a decent week than to sit down on Dr. Koh’s beige couch and sift through her feelings until she realized she’d been deluding herself and her week was, in fact, total shit."
"Indira also knew, as a psychiatrist herself, that this was called avoidance. And it was bad."
"But it would all be okay. If the emotional roller coaster of Indira’s childhood had taught her anything, it was that there wasn’t a problem out there that couldn’t be (at least temporarily) fixed by her mom’s red sauce."
"We both really love peanut butter," Chris eventually whispered, saying it like he was delivering the world’s most melodramatic line in a play."
"I’m fucking sad. All the time," she said, voice cracking as she blinked away tears. She didn’t want Dr. Koh to see any of them fall."
"Indira’s entire body shook with cackling laughter. Then something in her chest cracked. And she was bawling."
"How her deepest want was just to be loved, and how she wasn’t sure anyone ever could."
"Collin let out a forlorn sigh, moving toward Indira and gingerly unhooking Grammy’s paw."
""You’re so immature," Collin snapped. "Maturity is a social construct upheld by the patriarchy with an incredibly narrow, white, cis, neurotypical scope to enforce conformity and then implemented as an othering and shaming tactic for anyone that steps outside of that paradigm."
"There’s no feeling more powerful than being the sole reason a life was saved, being witness to the hidden brokenness of a body and knowing how to fix it, and Jude had worked toward it with undeterred focus through med school and his first year of hospital-based residency."
"Jude’s entire body flushed with a very lewd image that he absolutely should not be having."
She landed a punch on his shoulder. "Something can be mutual and still painful, jackass."
"Jude’s friendship with Collin was the most effortless relationship in Jude’s life."
"Trust me," he said at last. "It’s for the best if I don’t." Then he turned and walked away.
"It never would have lasted, but it certainly sucked how it ended."
"In all honesty, it kind of hurt more to watch Jude walk away from me than it was to process the end of the relationship with Chris."
"Maybe because I’ve known Jude for so long and he’s so different? It worries me. Bothers me. Which is weird because we’ve never been, like, best friends or whatever."
"I feel like maybe I kind of expected this with Chris? Or at least knew it was possible? Not the weird peanut-butter-cheating thing, but it ending."
"I panic when people leave. It feels as permanent as death and I react like that’s what happened."
"How can I be this damaged and still help people?"
"If sitting with them were comfortable, we wouldn’t let them fester until they infected our hearts and our heads."
"We struggle too. We hurt. We handle situations badly or get depressed or anxious or anything else."
"His scholarship required him to go to areas of need or disaster or conflict zones to perform emergency medicine."
"This overwhelming dread that Jude would be gone. Having him be this steady presence in my life for so long, it felt terrifying for him to leave."
"You are here in this alley, and I’m here with you. The October night is cold and the air a little smelly. But we’re both safe. We’re both here."
"I feel like a dick. I want to support them. I came back to support them."
"I’m, uh, sorry things didn’t work out. The only thing that hurts is my pride at this point."
"You might not necessarily be nice, but I’ve always known you were kind."
"The art of the flower. The wedding symbolizes a new beginning, the blooming of the next chapter of love."
"I remember spending the night with this knot of anxiety in my chest. This overwhelming dread that Jude would be gone."
"You know how many times I’ve had dog poop in my mouth, Jude? Zero. I can go to my grave knowing that truth."
"People get so few moments. And you’ve had so many robbed from you."
"I care now. I cared yesterday. I’ll care tomorrow. Every single day, I will sit outside your doorstep. And I’ll wait."
"I think your brain has convinced you that you don’t deserve to be cared for. Well, I’m calling bullshit. Because I care. And I’ll keep caring."
"It’s like she unhinges her jaw and swallows the food whole. Hoover would have been a better name for her."
"I wanted to help people—especially kids—who felt everything too. Or nothing at all. Or some mixture of both. Because feelings matter."
I'm not looking to fix you," she said, staring straight into his eyes. "I'm here to love you.
"Everyone always talks about skin-to-skin contact in the context of babies and parents, but adults need it too."
"I’m going to speak in similes and metaphors for a moment, and you aren’t allowed to roll your eyes."
"I think we need to talk," he said, turning to face her as he shut the door.
"Your general priggish attitude? Jury’s still out."
"What was I supposed to do, Dira?" Greg asked, his voice perfectly pitched to sound so devastated.
"It’s okay to sit with the feelings that don’t feel good."
"I wish to always remember the feeling of this moment."
I’m so sorry," Jude said, voice cracking on the words as a sharp tear slashed down his cheek. "But I can’t. I think it’s best if you leave me alone.
Don’t use that tone with me, Indira," her dad scolded. "I’m still your father.
"Indira was worthy of love just as she was. And she needed to start loving herself too, let go of the things that hurt her."
"I fucking love weddings. An entire day celebrating love? That’s some dope shit."
"I’m not here to change you or heal you. I’m here to support you. To love you. Every step of the way."
"Living—fully, unabashedly, fearlessly living—isn’t the easy way out, Jude. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever fucking do."
"Trauma and happy endings aren’t mutually exclusive."
"We honor the human body. Respect it. But we take the mind for granted."
"Being in love doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t make me more whole or human than when I was single."
"I love you so much it was impossible to think about her without my heart getting so overwhelmed it wanted to burst from my chest."