i. In a moment of weakness, I looked to the charity bin. It was in my domain, yet I could not decide if the jacket inside was familiar enough to justify the means necessary by which to gain an understanding. I tried to muster it. To bring the offending item to my face to check, once and for all, if I was right.

 

ii. The thing about drawing stars is when you go to fix the messy bits, to go pointy the ends, you’ll notice the center has changed.  You can draw more to try and draw attention away from the ones confused by the gravity of skin dragging them down, but the whole lot will only get more crooked. 

 

iii. I look at him to see if he got the irony, deep in the cool section of the church growing hotter with bodies. I can watch anyone here and nobody can catch my eyes. He does. 

 

iv. You could almost fall asleep, but then the girl says something funny:

 

v. It was Valentine’s Day in 2nd grade and there was a boy who was in love with me. He tried to kiss me at lunch and instead put his lips against my closed, gesturing fist. I was talking. 

 

vi. The truth, finally, is that today I chewed my way through an entire pack of gum, trying to taste good for someone who looks like you. 

 

vii. The thing about drawing stars is that you think you can stop, can tell your friend in front of the culprit that no, you don’t like blonds, but then your notebook gets covered and your ring finger, too, plus an extra one underneath the last knuckle on your left thumb to mirror the freckle on your right and you think that no one will look close enough to notice and that all of the spokes of your stars are off-center. 

 

viii. You don’t know what to do with love when it happens to you. And it is something that happens to you. And you don’t know what to do with it.

 

ix. There was a boy in 2nd grade and there was a boy in sophomore year who wore a camo jacket and a dogtag necklace like he was trying to disappear. His attention lasted a month and I knew what to do with it, then. But he knew it better than me. That would be the end of it, I decided, until the coat drive.