How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[Shin and I] met in a computer workshop when we were ten years old. […] [We] collaborated on a comic book that summer. […] Inevitably, we became best friends. (1.44-46)
Is a friendship forged at the age of ten likely to endure through the teen years and into adulthood? Some we know of do, but plenty definitely fizzle.
Quote #2
"He's not a freak," I said, knowing that Shin was hearing everything. (1.26)
Do you think Jason would have said this if Shin wasn't hearing everything?
Quote #3
There are times, though, when I wish Shin was not who he is. His interest in invertebrates, for instance, can be embarrassing at times. (1.47)
How often do we like absolutely every little thing about our friends and loved ones? Not very often. But how we hold the little quirks we're not so fond of says a great deal about us as friends.
Quote #4
It felt strange to be walking beside Henry Stagg, but the confrontation with the law somehow bound us together. (6.90)
This reminds us of that phrase you hear in movies and such: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Quote #5
I could never tell him what a pathetic nerd he looks like to a guy like Henry Stagg. Even though he knows. But he will never hear it from me. (12.24)
Do you think Shin knows he looks pathetic to Henry? Does he know that Jason thinks this? For Shin's sake, we really hope not.
Quote #6
Shin blinks and a tear dribbles down his cheek. I want to grab him and slap him and tell him, Grow up. Don't be such a baby. If you weren't such a nerdy, clumsy wuss, you wouldn't get left out. At the same time I feel awful for not telling him about Henry sooner. […] He's my friend. And he trusts me. (12.67)
The thing about friends is that at the same time as we accept them despite their weirdness (and sometimes because of their weirdness), we are secure in the knowledge that they too accept us and our idiosyncrasies. In order to this trust to thrive, though, we have to actually share ourselves with each other.
Quote #7
I shouldn't have laughed. I don't blame Shin for being angry. I should have talked to him before making Henry a Chutengodian. (15.92)
Jason knows there is an unspoken bro code. And he knows he's broken it.
Quote #8
I am furious with Shin. I went to all the trouble of making that ladder for him, and he freezes up on me. It's embarrassing! As far as I'm concerned, he can stay there the rest of the night. (17.67)
To what extent do our choices and behavior reflect upon our friends, and theirs on us?