How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
But Sophie and Clarke were different. There was a pattern here, some sense of connection, even if I didn't want to see it. It didn't seem fair or right, but I couldn't help but wonder if maybe all of this, and where I found myself, wasn't so accidental. Maybe it was just what I deserved. (4.14)
Even though Annabel feels pretty stung by Sophie's treatment, she can't help but remember the way she had treated Clarke way back in the day. Maybe this is an example of that thing they call karma, huh?
Quote #2
So much would have been different if I'd just stayed in that night, taken my spot beside her, and let Sophie go on without me. I'd made my choice, though, and I couldn't take it back. (4.79)
It's easy to get caught up in wondering what could have happened. What would life have been like if Annabel had never ditched Clarke? It doesn't matter much anymore because what's happened has happened—and even if it hasn't turned out well, there's nothing she can do about it.
Quote #3
"[...] Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment. Which is pretty amazing, when you actually think about it." (5.66)
Owen makes a pretty great point about how music can accompany certain memories. Even if you've changed as a person, music can bring you back to the state of mind you were in when you listened to a particular song. No wonder he loves it so much.
Quote #4
Like so much else that had happened that weekend, I found myself in this unexpected moment with my sister almost holding my breath. Finally I said, "I mean, we never did that, you know? When we were kids." (11.209)
The Greene sisters don't exactly have the same kind of childhood past times as other little girls who play at being models—instead they worked through their childhoods and never got the chance to make those memories.
Quote #5
"It's hard. Harder than I thought it would be." She opened a book by her elbow, flipping through the pages, then shut it. "I don't remember that much for some reason." (12.41)
Whitney's writing exercise is a way to get her to reflect on her past and the events that have brought her to where she is now. It may be difficult and tedious to look back on her life year by year, but it helps her to understand herself.
Quote #6
"You think I hate you?" she asked. Her voice, I noticed suddenly, was clear. Crystal. Not a sniffle to be heard. "Is that what you think the problem is here?" (14.113)
Clarke and Annabel clearly remember their falling out differently. Annabel thinks that Clarke hates her, but Clarke was hurt and expected Annabel to come make it up to her—though she never did.
Quote #7
It seemed like a million years ago now that school had begun, and I'd been so scared of her. Now when I saw Sophie, I just felt tired and sad for both of us. (15.94)
Over time, Sophie's become less and less important to Annabel. Because their friendship was never real to begin with, Annabel's memories of their times together fade.
Quote #8
"Afterwards," she continued, keeping her green eyes level on me, "I started thinking about you. And that night at the party, back when school ended last year." (16.9)
Annabel isn't the only one who's haunted by the memory of the party where she was raped. Emily obviously remembers it too, and has complicated feelings about it after being raped herself.
Quote #9
"I don't know how long I lay there before my sister came back for me. I remember staring up at the sky, the clouds moving past, and then hearing her calling my name. When she skidded to a stop beside me, she was the last person I wanted to see. And yet, like so many times before and since, the only one I had." (16.164)
Both Whitney and Kristen end up making personal art pieces about the day that Whitney broke her arm, but their perspectives of the day are different. That's the thing about memories—the details change depending on who tells them.
Quote #10
Because that is what happens when you try to run from the past. It doesn't just catch up: it overtakes, blotting out the future, the landscape, the very sky, until there is no path left except that which leads through it, the only one that can ever get you home. (17.44)
There's no running from a secret like the one that Annabel is holding inside. She's tried pretty hard to pretend that she was never raped, but by the end of the story she realizes that she can't keep pushing the memory away—she has to confront it.