My mother leaned close to her ear, whispering words I couldn’t hear. But I knew what they were, what they had to be: the same ones I’d heard after all those bad dreams, all those skateboard and roller-skating accidents, all the times the little fiendettes chased me home on pink bicycles. I watched my mother do what she did best, and realized there would never be a way to cut myself from her entirely. No matter how strong or weak I was, she was a part of me, as crucial as my own heart. I would never be strong enough, in all my life, to do without her.
~ Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You
