vicky.

"There is no greater love than to give one's life for friends."

“Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?”

“It was hot as Hades. It was spring, but it had suddenly decided it was summer. Virginia spring. You know how that is. Heavy, somehow. There was no shade in the backyard, but there was this great forest that bounded it. Dark and green and blue. Like diving into a lake. In I went, and it was fantastic. Only five minutes and I couldn’t see the house.

“I stepped on a nest. Hornets, like you said. They nest on the ground. I don’t have to tell you. But I didn’t know back then. The first thing I felt was a little prickle on my sock. I thought I’d stepped on a thorn—there were a ton of them, those green, whip-shaped ones—but then I felt another. They were just such small hurts, you know?

“But then I felt one on my hand, and by the time I jumped away, I saw them. All over my arms. I knew I was dead. I knew I was dead before I started to feel everything start to go wrong in my body. Because I’d been to the hospital for just one sting, and this was, like, a hundred. They were in my hair. They were in my ears, Blue.