Twisted Quotes
"The hard labor had turned me from Nerd Boy into Tyler the Amazing Hulk, with ripped muscles and enough testosterone to power a nuclear generator."
"Meet my mother: pet photographer, cake baker, nice lady who smells faintly of gin."
"Days like this I thought maybe I should just blow off school, move to Minnesota or something, get a job that let me sweat, and never, ever think again."
"We're seniors, Yoda. You gotta stop saying that."
"I wasn’t supposed to think about that, but it was like porn."
"Bethany sucked some frosting off her finger and moaned."
"The enlightened ones—the wounded sophomores, jaded juniors, and wise seniors—we trudged to the door, a prison gang so beaten down we didn’t need ankle shackles."
"It was the last Saturday night before my senior year of high school and I was alone in my room."
"I was so sick of this. You expect me to wave a magic wand and make everything all better. Dad will talk to the teacher. Dad will pay for the lawyer. Daddy fix."
"You have to be Tyler, the Danger Guy. Gangsta Miller."
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time."
"Breathe. Just keep breathing. And kill the first thing you can get your hands on."
"Yeah, I do," I said. "He was offering to help, and these little shits jumped him."
"Any time you want, Chipper," I said. "Any place."
"It’s a good thing they never found out what I really wanted to do."
"Your mother and I have already discussed this. She said she told you."
"If I could tear through it with my bare hands, then rip through the wood underneath, I could squeeze through the hole in the floor, drop down to the basement, wiggle out one of the tiny basement windows (maybe), and take off before the cops even got inside."
"We sat in the living room, the room in which no living was ever done except for dusting the piano, vacuuming the lemon-colored carpet, and entertaining people we didn’t like."
"Mom’s smile looked like the kind you see on a mummy, when the skin has shrunk so far you can see the teeth and gums."
"The look he gave me when he walked in the door made me want to dig a hole through the floor again."
"I wondered if it would be possible to crawl into the piano and close the lid. Maybe the wires would cut me into hundreds of pieces and I would bleed out before anyone noticed."
"Dad put his hand on top of hers and patted it."
"That was cop-speak for 'we have all of the information we need to send your son away to federal penitentiary for twenty years, but we’ll save the taxpayers a lot of money if we can squeeze a confession out of him right here.'"
"She came on to me—we kissed. She wanted to do more, but I didn’t. I mean, no, I did, but I didn’t, not like that, not there, not when she was—Drunk? Yeah. Drunk."
"You walked?" Benson interrupted. "Yes, sir." "We don’t let him drive anymore," Mom explained."
""Ev-i-dence," Dad said slowly. His yellow dragon eyes flashed at Adams."
"I am not a suspect. Nobody did anything criminal to Bethany. In fact, the party never happened."
"I stopped in the upstairs bathroom, popped four ibuprofen, and chugged half a bottle of NyQuil. Then I went to bed like the bad little boy I was."
"By lunchtime my notebooks were in shreds, my wallet had been stolen, and my watch was in a million pieces in the Math wing."
"Every step in a crowded hall came with a shove, a trip, a couple of quick shots to the kidneys."
""Leave Calvin alone. He’s in shock. He can’t believe that Mom grounded me until graduation.""
"The back of my shirt was dark with sweat, and the spot on my abs was growing."
""Keeping him at home would have to be considered a suspension. We don’t have the grounds for that. This compromise will work best for everyone concerned.""
"I stayed on the bench while Dad supervised the removal of my computer."
""This wouldn’t be an excuse for you to slack off," Dad warned."
""What are you going to do?" "I’ve been thinking along those lines. About your options," He stood up and walked to the bookshelf at the end of the room."
""I don’t mind it," I said. "If they want to put me in a study hall, or just take me out of class until this all dies down, I’m cool with it.""
"The one thing that kept kicking my butt was English."
"It wasn’t that the walk was so long it would kill me. I just wasn’t in the mood."
"A long shower loosened up the knots in my back and arms."
""You don’t learn so fast, do you, Miller? Didn’t your old man ever teach you how to fight back?""
""Didn’t your old man ever teach you how to fight back?" "No, that never came up.""
""I’m not a nice guy. What can I say?" He shoved his hands in his pockets. "My advice? Pick someplace warmer. Texas. My wife would like Texas.""
""You always struck me as the kind of kid who runs when things get tough.""
""Is that where you’re going?" "What do you mean?" "You always struck me as the kind of kid who runs when things get tough.""
""You gonna spend the rest of your days whining because your dad’s a jerk? I hate people like that. Don’t be a baby—live your own life.""
"Blame my DNA, a bad genetic twist. It’s not your fault. Not really."
"I hated to admit it, but Salvatore was right. There was no such thing as a great first draft."
"If they don’t arrest me, Dad’s sending me to military school. How’s that for options?"
"I wasn’t sure how to end it: Your Son, Truly, Love, Sincerely, See ya…nothing fit."
"Why bother? What if the letter became public?"
"Can’t think about Hannah. Won’t think about Hannah. Have to get out."
"Every day would be a death of a thousand paper cuts that would close up overnight and bleed fresh the next morning."
"I will try to do it better. Everything. I’ll try."
"I don’t have enough words to thank all of the guys... This book is in no way based on any of the stories they shared, but I hope it echoes and reflects their struggles and triumphs."