A Crazy World of Dreams

writer/dreamer/traveller

[acrazyworldofdreams]

The Best Lines from RW&RB - An Opinion

This post is going to be super long, I would apologise but I’m not sorry. This book is exquisite for so many reasons...so let me count thy ways. Also this post took me such a long time to make, so I hope you like it! x

P.S: There are Major Spoilers - so please make sure to have read the book first! Also the page references are from the ebook, so I’m not sure if it will align with the actual book. I hope so!

Credit: Softerstorms

Chapter One

Page 10

“Alex rolls his eyes, suddenly imagining twirling around a ballroom while Henry drones sweet nothings about croquet and fox hunting in his ear. The thought makes him want to gag. “In his dreams.”“Aw,” Nora says, “you’re blushing.”

Note: Alex, your BI is showing.

Page 11

“It’s trash turtles all the way down. 

“”Is this your TED Talk?”” June asks.”

Note: tHANK yOU fOR cOMING tO mY tED tALK. Also I see you Casey and that suave Green reference.

Page 12

"...dull. He’s sure there won’t be this kind of turnout in front of the White House when he or June get married one day, nor would he even want it.”

Note: Love me a bit of foreshadowing (well I know it’s not official canon but we all know...right RIGHT!!!)

Page 14

“Aw, little buddy,” Nora says. She reaches over and pats his hand. “It’s cute how you think everything is about you.”

“It should be, honestly.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Note: When it comes to Henry, Alex loses perspective of everything else. 

Page 18

“Am I offending you? Sorry I’m not obsessed with you like everyone else. I know that must be confusing for you.”

“Do you know what?” Henry says. “I think you are.” 

Alex’s mouth drops open, while the corner of Henry’s turns smug and almost a little mean. “

Only a thought,” Henry says, tone polite. “Have you ever noticed I have never once approached you and have been exhaustively civil every time we’ve spoken? Yet here you are, seeking me out again.” He takes a sip of his champagne. “Simply an observation.”

Note: MIC DROP. The first sign of the real Henry peeping through the cracks and he just takes Alex down. In one SWOOP LIKE THAT. Also YES, like completely obsessed.

Credit: mydearldydisdain

Chapter Two

Page 25

“...you act like the sun shines out of his dick” &  “...hear you gush like he’s your fucking prom date.”

Note: Oh Zahra, did you predict or create the future?

Page 28

“June and Nora are ignoring him, caught in a bubble of intimacy he can never quite penetrate. Their relationship is something enormous and incomprehensible to most people, including Alex on occasion.”

Note: Subtle showing of a relationship that has nothing to do with the men in their lives and I AM here for it.

Page 30 

“..hate-reading Henry’s Wikipedia page.”

Note: Alex’s personal foreplay.

Page 36

“...leather boots, looking every inch an actual fairy-tale prince.”

Note: Shh now Alex, your crush is showing.

Page 38

“I bet he has a secret lovechild,” Nora says. “Or he’s gay.”

Note: Never question Queen Nora. Also love the foreshadowing here.

Page 41

“I didn’t know you wore glasses,”

Note: Psst Henry, now your crush is showing.

Page 43

“Whatever, fine. Henry is annoyingly attractive. That’s always been a thing, objectively. It’s fine.”

Note: What I like about this is how much Casey tells us about Alex in just one small paragraph. Firstly that Alex still thinks Henry is hot, like a lot hot but more importantly that it annoys him. She also here has Alex acknowledge that this is not a new thing for him, like deep down he’s always know but even now he’s still fighting it by classifying it as an objective viewpoint. 

Oh sweetie, you were and never could be objective. It is not fine and that’s ok.

Credit: Lavaslamps

Chapter Three

Page 60 

“Come on. I’m trying to give you some advice, from one old man to a much younger version of himself.”

Note: Do you think Luna knows about Alex here? Like he really does see himself in Alex and wants to protect him being sucked into the whirlpool that is life in the Senate AND also maybe just maybe wants to protect him from all the bad stuff too. 

Page 69 (Saucy)

“He knows he talks too much, hopeless at moderating his feelings, which he usually hides under ten layers of charm, but he ultimately doesn’t care what Henry thinks of him, so he doesn’t bother. Instead, he’s as weird and manic as he wants to be, and Henry jabs back in sharp flashes of startling wit.”

Note: The true beginnings of a long lasting love story - fight me.

Page 71

““are you watching videos of Justin Trudeau speaking French again?”

“That’s not a thing I do!””

Note: The gay, oh the glorious gay.

Page 74

“tell Shaan I say hi and i miss that sweet sweet ass”

Note: Oh Alex really....how did you not KNOW????

Credit: Cenvast

Chapter Four

Page 83 

“He hangs up and stares at the phone in his hand, as it it should explain the static electricity in the air around him.”

Note: He notices so early on, he just doesn’t understand what it means. My lil’ bub. So clever, yet so stoopid.

Page 85

“He smells the same as ever, salty and smoky and like well-treated leather.”

&

Page 86

“Alex’s childhood was perfumed with simmering peppers and onions and stew meat in a cast iron pot for caldillo, fresh masa waiting on the butcher block.”

Note: I like that a lot of Alex’s memories are focused around smell, especially in relation to his father and his family. Food and its smells are so important to his own culture and history, and in these few sentences we capture a startling clear and wonderful view of the life he once lived. The one he misses constantly throughout the novel. 

Page 92

“He’s never bothered to filter himself with Henry, at first because he honestly didn’t care what Henry thought, and now because it’s how they are.”

Note: How love grows in the quietest of moments - a thesis. 

Page 95 “Oh my God, this is like all those romantic comedies where the girl hires a male escort to pretend to be her wedding date and then falls in love with him for real.”

Note: Basically the plot then. 

Page 98

“That must be why something feels so restless and hot somewhere beneath his sternum.”

Note: It's a slow awakening for our First Son.

Page 99

“Like very expensive velvet, something moneyed and lush and fluid all at once.”

Note: Swoon. That’s it, that’s the note. 

Page 99

“He does, against all odds, really like this person.”

Note: Alex seems to fight his attraction to Henry at every turn. Like he decided in that Moment at the Olympics that he would never allow himself to like Henry because it would hurt too much to. Now he is learning that sometimes first impressions are wrong and it’s okay to give someone a second chance when they earn the right to have one.. 

Page 101

“”Here,” Alex says, moving his own hips, “watch me.” 

With a grave gulp of champagne, Henry says, “I am.””

Note: He’s always watching. Aren’t you, Henry darling? Because really how could you keep your eyes on something so bright and dazzling. 

Credit: Skyhaus

Chapter Five

Page 110

“Alex’s insides feel positively molten.”

Note: If kissing the person of your dreams always felt like this, sign me the f* up!

Page 110

“He thinks, as he runs and runs and runs, the stupidest thing of all is that he’s straight.”

Note: Lol Alex Lol

Page 112 “Straight people, he thinks, probably don’t spend this much time convincing themselves they’re straight.”

Note: Considered one of the most famous lines of the book, and you can easily see why. Casey perfectly sums up here the experience of discovering a new part of yourself. The slow, teasing, undramatic realisation that you are not as you once were and you know what, that’s absolutely okay. 

Page 117

“Watch yourself or I’m gonna marry June instead.”

Note: Nora knows what’s up. 

Page 120

“Prince Henry is a biscuit,” Nora says, “let him sop you up.”

Note: Nora is literally the best. The End.

Page 120

“First, you’ve been, like, Draco Malfoy–level obsessed with Henry for years—

Note: I mean, like, who isn’t a) obsessed with Henry b) obsessed with Darry.

Page 121 “Sorry, are we not? Did I skip ahead again? My bad. Hello, would you like to come out to me? I’m listening. Hi.” 

Note: NORA MVP (maybe this post is just an ODE to Nora). On a serious note, I love how both unserious and serious Nora makes Alex’s coming out. Like she breezes past it so quickly like it is just normal. I know media and growing up makes us seem like it’s a big deal but I also love it not being. Like Alex is just Alex and Nora wants to get to the bit that’s about Alex’s feelings.

Page 124

“...but now he’s very singularly pissed, his entire shitty mood funneled down to the point on the page where Henry’s lips touch somebody’s skin that’s not his. Who the fuck does Henry think he is? How fucking—how entitled, how aloof, how selfish do you have to be, to spend months becoming someone’s friend, let them show you all their weird gross weak parts, kiss them, make them question everything, ignore them for weeks, and go out with someone else and put it in the press?”

Note: OOO Alex pissed. Also shh your ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE CRUSH IS SCREAMING.

Credit: vkelleyart

Chapter Six

Page 128

“Alex wants to rip it off.”

Note: Not a shy boy our Alex.

Page 134

“aka I am going to do very bad things to you.”

Note: SO F**KING HAWT

Page 135

“His stomach does some embarrassing acrobatics he plans to never tell anyone about, ever.”

Note: I think....just maybe this is the first sign of love for Alex. Of course, he steamrolls over it but...but it’s kinda beautiful, don’t you think?

Page 148

“Enjoy your summit with the English delegation.”

Note: Honestly the supporting cast in this novel are straight up comedians.

Credit: amberneonlights

Chapter Seven

Page 160

“(But, like. It’s fine. It’s not a whole thing.)”

Note: Or like it's all the things.

Page 161

“When he sinks into thoughts of Henry’s hands, square knuckles and elegant fingers, he wonders how he never realized it before.”

Note: I can only imagine what kind of fantasies our boy has about these hands in particular and what they might do to him. 

Page 166

“It’s become a thing: baby.”

Note: shudders

Page 172

“About Liam, about those nights, but also how he’d sneak pills out of Liam’s Adderall bottle when his grades were slipping and stay awake for two, three days at a time.”

Note: We never really get to explore this throwaway line but again it builds and fleshes out the true nature of who Alex is. He’s not perfect but he has damn well striven and struggled to be. I’m so sorry baby that no-one reminded you were enough all this time. I’m so glad Henry will be that person for you in the future.

Page 173 “Somehow, this is the same person who had Alex so convinced he didn’t care about anything, who still has the rest of the world convinced he’s a mild, unfettered Prince Charming. It’s taken months to get here: the full realization of just how wrong he was.

“I miss you,” Alex says before he can stop himself. He instantly regrets it, but Henry says, “I miss you too.””

Note: The first steps are often so small we don’t acknowledge but when we look back we realise they were huge ones.

Page 178

“Alex stares at her, trying to process what she’s said. “I feel like this is your starry-eyed romantic thing projecting onto me,” is what he decides to say, and she immediately withdraws her hand from his leg and returns to glaring at him.”

Note: Ahh June really holds the vision in this book! 

Page 180

“a light left on

Note: There is something so cozy and warming about these four words. They are perfect.

Page 180

“Stop trying to Jane Austen my life!” he yells back.”

Note: WHY THE HELL NOT. AUSTEN IS MY QUEEN!! AND YOU SHALL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING, AFTER A WHOLE LOTTA ANGST. BECAUSE WE SAY SO!

Page 181

“There’s law school.”  

Note: One many subtle book altering sentences.

Page 185

“He’s always wanted to be a person with a legacy in this world. Henry is undoubtedly, determinedly that. It’s a little intoxicating. But it’s fine. He’s just a little sleep-deprived.”

Note: For Alex, Henry is the anchor is the storm. A shining beacon for showing him he can do what he wants. He can affect change and leave his own legacy on this world outside of his mom’s seemingly huge shadow. But there’s also this bit of Henry that allows Alex to step back from this pressure as well. Henry allows Alex to learn he is enough and this makes my heart melt so much (and makes me feel like I might just be enough too).

Page 187

“He found them during his first six months at the White House, before June graduated and Nora transferred, when he was alone, with nothing better to do than these little investigative projects around the grounds.”

Note: Do you think he realised how lonely he was?

Page 194

“Bisexuality is truly a rich and complex tapestry” 

Note: The glorious eye-opening reality of bisexuality and everything in between.

Page 196

“Henry pushes a hand into his hair and gives it a little pull. “I shall just have to make it the best orgasm of your life. What can I do to make it good for you? Talk about American tax reform during the act? Have you got talking points?” 

Note: The sexiest of all sentences uttered.

Page 198

“It’s unpredictable and it’s intoxicating and it’s fun, because Alex has never met a challenge he didn’t love, and he—well, Henry is a challenge, head to toe, beginning to end.”

Note: The L bomb hidden in plain sight, don’t you think?

Page 200

“Through his throbbing hangover, he’s got a suspicion all these feelings are why he held off on fucking Henry for so long.”

Note: There’s nothing quite as scary as being faced with the undeniable truth. No running away, no head in the sand anymore. Only the cold hard f**king terrifying truth. Welcome to life Alex baby. You’re gonna be fine!

Credit: thematicallycoherent

Chapter Eight

Page 206

“Alex feels like somebody has probably warned him about private email servers before, but he’s a little fuzzy on the details. It doesn’t feel important.”

Note: What a sentence, foreshadowing in the most casual of ways there Casey but it’s so important to the plot and you just never really see it coming.  

Page 216

“As soon as the door is closed behind them, Henry slams him up against it.”

Note: Honestly I’m afraid for any wall or door around these two. I wonder if they actually ever broke one?

Page 219

“Henry closes his eyes, playing from memory. It’s ““Your Song.”” 

Oh. And Alex’s heart doesn’t spread itself out in his chest, and he doesn’t have to grip the edge of the settee to steady himself. Because that’s what he would do if he were here in this palace to fall in love with Henry, and not just continuing this thing where they fly across the world to touch each other and don’t talk about it. That’s not why he’s here. It’s not.”

Note: The denial is real.

Page 220

“It pushes Henry over some kind of edge, melted and overwhelmed on the lush bedclothes. Alex spends nearly an hour afterward coaxing little tremors out of him, in awe of his elaborate expressions of wonder and blissful agony, ghosting featherlight fingertips over his collarbone, his ankles, the insides of his knees, the small bones of the backs of his hands, the dip of his lower lip. He touches and touches until he brings Henry to another brink with only his fingertips, only his breath on the inside of his thighs, the promise of Alex’s mouth where he’d pressed his fingers before.”

Note: Did Alex like stumble and fall head first into edging here?

Page 221

“It’s just jet lag.”

Note: It's not just jet lag.

Page 225

“I memorized his goddamn Five Guys order!”

Note: If you know, you know.

Page 227

“He wants to call Henry. He guesses it makes sense—they’ve always been fixed points in each other’s worlds, little magnetic poles. Some laws of physics would be reassuring right now.”

Note: Magnetic is the perfect way to describe these two. I think Henry always knew, and perhaps Alex did deep down. It’s always been about the chemistry!! Or maybe the biology.

Page 228

“He looks like something soft and downy Alex wants to sink into, and he realizes the knot of anxiety in his chest has finally slackened.”

Note: Sometimes I think this whole book is a love letter from Alex to Henry. It is.

Page 232

“Henry has pulled himself off the floor and put on a shirt, and his ears are bright red. “I think, perhaps, if it helps. It was. Er. Rather inevitable. At least for me. So you shouldn’t blame yourself.”

Note: TRUTH BOMBS

Page 233

“Um. Yeah? I haven’t, um, come out to her. Yet.”

Note: The delicate vulnerability here makes me feel so soft. Alex really cares about this moment with his mom and just i’m here for it. Also massive kudos to Zahra for understanding how important it was to Alex to come out to his mom.

Credit: Lanel

Chapter Nine

Page 237

“An hour later, there are several cartons of Chinese food and a PowerPoint cued up. The first slide says: SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATION WITH FOREIGN MONARCHS: A GRAY AREA. Alex wonders if it’s too late to swan dive off the roof.”

Note: Swear to god, my favourite paragraph in this whole damn book.

Page 241

“Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.”

Note: Literally loses his job and the first thing he starts contemplating is how fucking important Henry is to him. Like history, forever thinking.

Page 242

“I just want to … you know. Extend the option. If you wanted less of me, and more of that—the work, the uncomplicated things—I would understand. Truly.”

Note: Not sure Henry's getting the memo here. ALEX IS IN LOVE WITH YOU.

Page 242

“Should I tell you that when we’re apart, your body comes back to me in dreams? That when I sleep, I see you, the dip of your waist, the freckle above your hip, and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I’ve just been with you, the phantom touch of your hand on the back of my neck fresh and not imagined? That I can feel your skin against mine, and it makes every bone in my body ache? That, for a few moments, I can hold my breath and be back there with you, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all?”

Note: This is so sexy, but you know like that suave kind of sexy, which bubbles up under your skin and gives you tingles. F**k, i’m kinda hot under the collar now....

Page 254

““Not bad for a European,” his dad says. “Better than half the idiots June’s brought home.” Alex’s hands freeze, and his head jerks back to his dad, who’s still stirring with his heavy wooden spoon, face impartial. “Half the girls you’ve brought around too. Not better than Nora, though. She’ll always be my favorite.” Alex stares at him, until his dad finally looks up. 

“What? You’re not as subtle as you think.”

“I—I don’t know,” Alex sputters. “I thought you might need to, like, have a Catholic moment about this or something?” His dad slaps him on the bicep with the spoon, leaving a splatter of crema and cheese behind. “Have a little more faith in your old man than that, eh? A little appreciation for the patron saint of gender-neutral bathrooms in California? Little shit.”

“Okay, okay, sorry!” Alex says, laughing. “I just know it’s different when it’s your own kid.” His dad laughs too, rubbing a hand over his goatee. “It’s really not. Not to me, anyway. I see you.””

Note: This is a huge moment for Alex. I see you, the best and most epic thing a parent could ever say to their kid. F**k, I’m emosh right now. 

Page 256

““He sucks his teeth, considering. “Sometimes you just jump and hope it’s not a cliff.””

Note: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee what fun we are having as we fall. Ever hopeful it is not to our death!

Page 257

“Well, Alex is so in love he could die.”

Note: We know bro, we know but like YAY FOR YOU!

Page 259

“He wears a key to his childhood home around his neck, but he doesn’t know the last time he actually thought about the boy who used to push it into the lock. Maybe losing the job isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. He thinks about roots, about first and second languages. What he wanted when he was a kid and what he wants now and where those things overlap. Maybe that place, the meeting of the two, is here somewhere, in the gentle insistence of the water around his legs, crude letters carved with an old pocket knife. The steady thrum of another person’s pulse against his.”

Note: Alex's coming of age.

Page 262

“Henry’s looking at him and looking at him, and Alex can’t shake the feeling Henry’s really seeing him for the first time.”

Note: I think more that he’s seeing that is has to end. Imagine looking into the future and seeing no Alex. Henry must have been in so much pain here. I’m so sad. Don’t come for me. 

Page 263

“I just mean to say, you know, Philip is the heir and I’m the spare, and if that nervy bastard has a heart attack at thirty-five and I’ve got malaria, whither the spare?”

Note: Henry really subtly trying to tell Alex this is A NO GO situation.

Page 264

“That, he realizes suddenly, is the danger of allowing love into this—the acknowledgment that if something goes wrong, he doesn’t know how he will stand it.”

Note: Falling in love is one of the scariest things because it asks you to be the most vulnerable. To put yourself out there and say take me as I am. I feel you Alex.

Page 265

“Alex, Had to go early for a family matter. Left with the PPOs. Didn’t want to wake you. Thank you for everything. X

Note: Polite and a little bit honest even to the end. Even in pain, Henry is so grateful to Alex. For everything he has shown him about being loved, loving in return. Of a life he couldn’t have forever but was allowed a small taste to hold to for the rest of his miserable life. 

Oh shit. Henry DON’T DO THIS!!!

Credit: WithLoveBinnie

Chapter Ten

Page 270

“Really nice,” Alex yells after him, dripping as aggressively as he can manage along the way. He hopes he ruins a rug.”

Note: Chef's kiss, Alex.

Page 274

“Fuck you,” Henry says, his voice breaking, and he gets a handful of Alex’s shirt collar, and Alex knows he’s going to love this stubborn shithead forever.”

Note: When you know on this level of your soul, it is irrefutable. 

Page 275

“...before he registers being shoved backward into a wall,”

Note: I’ll never stop feeling sorry for these poor walls!

Page 275

“He’s in stupid, unbearable love, and Henry loves him too, and at least for one night it matters.”

Note: It always matters.

Page 277

“One. Henry isn’t here. 

Two. Henry never said yes to any kind of future last night. 

Three. This could very well be the last time he gets to inhale Henry’s scent on anything. 

But, four. Next to the clock on the mantel, Henry’s ring still sits.”

Note: Perhaps the most important list of Alex's life?

Page 278

“That’s not good enough for me.”

Note: Henry's moment of reckoning.

Page 280

“”So I can offer you all of me, in whatever way you’ll have me, and I can offer you the chance of a life. If you can wait, I want you to help me try.””

Note: Omg Hen wtf this is so fucking poetic.

Page 280

“”It hits him, fully: the weight of this. How completely neither of them will ever be able to undo it. “Okay,” he says. “I’m into making history.””

Note: Quite hard not to make history when you’re the president’s son and prince but I guess you do get to decide what KIND of history you make!

Page 284

“Diaz, you insane, hopeless romantic little shit,” says the voice of the President of the United States, muffled in the bed. “It had better be forever. Be safe.”

Note: Ahh that Motherly love again.

Page 289:

““I’m taking a picture of a national gay landmark,” Alex tells him. “And also a statue.””

Note: I wish we have more national gay landmarks. We all know they exist, shining in history but not on show, like they should be. I want more of our life, culture, true society on full display. I hope one day we will. Until then let’s all stare adoringly at Henry. Though no-one beats Alex’s longing gaze.

Page 291

“He removes his hand and there, sitting in the center of Alex’s callused palm, is the signet ring.”

Note: Sure looks like a heart to me.

Credit: TeaTimeWitch 

Chapter Eleven

Page 298

“Because I’m not like the rest of the men of this family, beginning with the fact that I am very deeply gay, Philip.”

Note: Second fave paragraph

Page 299

“A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they’re inaccessible. You must invent an entirely new system.”

Note: Perhaps one of the core reasons I feel so strongly about this book is this paragraph (and the later bit). I lost my mom to cancer when I was 8 and let me tell you it goes to the core of you. ALL the way to the bottom and you spend the rest of your life wondering if everything you struggle with is related to this one horrific, pivotal moment of your childhood. Healing is a life long process, and this just hits hard. 

Page 301

“Not as much love as me. Obviously.”

Note: Authentic Alex all the way. It’s why we love you dude.

Page 302 

“AN INCOMPLETE LIST: THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HRH PRINCE HENRY OF WALES”

Note: Everything

Credit: Lanel 

Chapter Twelve

Page 312

“Alex wants to go to war for this man.”

Note: Like Achilles himself. 

Page 313

““Meet you in every dream … Keep most of your heart in Washington … Miss you like a home … We two longing loves … My young king.” 

One day, he tells himself. One day, us too.”

Note: Alex’s hopes and dreams summed up in the hopes and dreams of those who’ve gone before him.

Page 314. 

“He wants to set himself on fire, but he can’t afford for anyone to see him burn.”

Note: I’ve felt like this. When you have to hide the pain, it makes it so much worse.

Page 318

“You know, it’s worse than trust. I believed in you.”

Note: Broken trust is a hard place to come back from because if trust is the foundation of all things, what do you build on. I understand he had his reasons but this kind of devastation stays with you. Is it really worth it? I wonder.

Page 319

“...i mean the truth of you. the weird, perfect shape of your heart. the one on the outside of your chest. on the map of you,”

Note: ‘on the outside of your chest’ - these emails are some of the most romantic strings of words I’ve read in a long time. And they flow so well, and the two just have this banter and connection that transcends all the silly facades. 

Page 323

“It’s about to be gay DEFCON five in this administration. For God’s sake, put some clothes on.”

Note: Always the witty one, our Zahra

Credit: Kay Rose Bee

Chapter Thirteen

Page 327

“I am your mother. I was your mother before I was ever the president, and I’ll be your mother long after, to the day they put me in the ground and beyond this earth. You are my child. So, if you’re serious about this, I’ll back your play.” Alex is silent.”

Note: She ain't ma of the year (she’s pretty good, honestly not shittin’ on mama first prince here) but she seriously steps up to the plate when she needs to. I like it a lot. The parents are so real in this story. 

Page 331

“...wanted to see about his own relationship and its ramifications for the world around him. This is the damage you cause, Alex, it all seems to say, right there in hard facts and figures. This is who you hurt.”

Note: Now this is turtles all the way down.

Page 335

“Still, the cocky shithead part of him is slightly pleased to finally have a claim on Henry. Yep, the prince? Most eligible bachelor in the world? British accent, face like a Greek god, legs for days? Mine.”

Note: Dying. Alex could write his own Thesis on Henry by this point.

Page 336

“It’s like how he only wears his glasses when nobody’s around: Nobody’s supposed to see how much he needs.”

Note: Sobbing, also getting whiplash here, Alex. On so many occasions throughout this book, I’ve keenly felt Alex’s loneliness, the way he’s decided he doesn’t need anyone else and I love how he will eventually understand we all need people. That’s what it means to be human. 

Page 337

““Hello?” It’s Henry’s voice, sweet and posh and shaky and confused, and relief knocks the wind out of him. 

“Sweetheart.” He hears Henry’s exhale over the line. “Hi, love. Are you okay?” He laughs wetly, amazed. 

“Fuck, are you kidding me? I’m fine, I’m fine, are you okay?””

“I’m … managing.”

Note: That sweetheart reduces me to a puddle of emotions and large, blubbering tears every bloody time. It’s just so so perfect and these two have come so far. No more running.

Page 339

“Wait. Zahra. Oh my God. I just realized. You’re … my friend.”“No, I’m not.”

“Zahra, you’re my mean friend.”

Note. That is strictly Need to Know information Alex and you DO NOT NEED to know :D

Page 340

“If Henry’s voice on the phone was a tether, his body is the gravity that makes it possible, his hand gripping the back of Alex’s neck a magnetic force, a permanent compass north.”

Note: Perhaps Alex should study Astronomy at College instead?

Page 341

“We deserve to have one parent, at least.”

Note: Close to home, Ouch. Sometimes we don’t get either. 

Page 343

“The worst thing is one of the first big things that ever happens to you in your life. It happens to you, and it goes all the way down to the bottom of what you know how to feel, and it rips it open and carves out this chasm down below to make room. And because you were so young, and because it was one of the first big things to happen in your life, you’ll always carry it inside you. Every time something terrible happens to you from then on, it doesn’t just stop at the bottom—it goes all the way down.”

&

“...but there is a sadness and a hurt in him that is tremendous, and you may very well never truly understand it, but you need to love it as much as you love the rest of him, because that’s him. That is him, part and parcel. And he is prepared to give it all to you, which is far more than I ever, in a thousand years, thought I would see him do.”

Note: See previous notes, but I love all this section too. To be honest like the full two pages Bea spends explaining this all to Alex is so so important. It’s not enough to love the shiny bits of someone, you must love all the hidden, dark, pushed away parts. You must seek to understand, so when they react the way they do, you can understand why its different. Why it is so so painful. I love you Henry.

Page 344

“But the thing is, jumping off cliffs is kinda my thing. That’s the choice. I love him, with all that, because of all that. On purpose. I love him on purpose.”

Note: F**k, no you’re crying.

Page 348

“Henry wondering if it’s safe to accept the love offered to him, and wanting desperately to take it regardless.”

Note: I fought long and hard in my life with the need to be loved by my own remaining parent, and at times it felt wonderful to receive any signs, but for me it always came with a too high of a cost. I’m glad for Henry that he can finally start receiving his mom’s love. It’s truly beautiful to watch her wake up. 

Page 358

“Oh, you have a choice, Mum,” Catherine says. “You’ve always had a choice. Perhaps today you’ll make the right one.”

Note: I think this is true about anyone. No matter how we’ve grown up, what’s happened to us or what we’ve been told, you always have a choice about the way you act. I hope we can all try to make better choices. What happened to you isn’t your fault but it is your responsibility.

Page 358

“A royal and a rebel, arms around each other.”

Note: This feels so full circle. One of the things they first connected over and saw a true glimpse of the other. 

Credit: Delaney + Aileen

Chapter Fourteen

Page 360

“When the car door opens, it’s June, standing there in a bright yellow T-shirt that says: HISTORY, HUH?”

Note: Ladies, Gents & Everyone in between, the one and only Catalina June Claremont-Diaz.

Page 361

“Alex turns away, pacing over to the railing. He really could have used Nora’s nonplussed approach in this situation, or, really, just his best friend’s company. He feels somewhat betrayed she’s abandoned him when he needs her most—when he and June both need her most. She has a tendency to bury herself in complex calculations on purpose when especially bad things happen around her.”

Note: A flaw, at last. Kinda relieved Nora is still a person too. 

Page 371

“This is it. October 2, 2020, and the whole world watched, and history remembered.”

Note: Sometimes I really wish this is the timeline we had but I also know there were so many lessons from the timeline we did have.

Page 371

“My life is cosmic joke and you’re not a real person,” Alex says, wheezing.

Note: Isn't it always?

Page 372

“You are,” he says, “the absolute worst idea I’ve ever had.”

Note: Hahahahahahahaha and your point Alex?

Page 376

“If you think I don’t tell every hire on their first day that you have a free pass,” he says, “you do not have an accurate sense of yourself.”

Note: The bonds go deep.

Page 380

“..his LSAT results, unopened and tucked away inside the desk in his bedroom. How do you do all the good you can do?”

Note: I love how this is just not in the story but it is also all over it.

Page 385

“It’s like everything he’s ever loved about Henry in a moment, in a laugh, in the way he shivers, in the confident roll of his spine, in happy, unfettered sex in the well-furnished eye of a storm.”

Note: Love is the sum of the parts that make the whole. You must have them all to have the full experience. 

Credit: tali-zorahs

Chapter Fifteen

Page 390

“Because I’m the prince of—” Henry looks over at her and gestures at the Orangery, at Kensington, sputtering. “Here!”

Note: Eloquent as always my dear.

Page 394

“He loves Texas—he believes in Texas. But he doesn’t know if Texas still loves him.”

Note: So much doubt.

Page 407

“The second he steps backstage, there’s a hand on his back, the achingly familiar gravity of someone else’s body reentering his space before it even touches his, a clean, familiar scent light in the air between.”

Note: It’s always about the stars and galaxies with these two.

Page 408

“Alex is so busy watching them, his two favorite people”

Note: Damn right. Never trust someone who abandons the people who are always there for them. (Caveat: toxic people excluded, always walk away from them!)

Page 411

“You really have a lot to learn about America, mijo,” Oscar tells him, not unkindly.”

Note: Welcome to the family Hen.

Page 413

“Texas is gray for five more seconds, before flooding beautiful, beautiful, unmistakable Lake LBJ blue.”

Note: Are you flirting with me Texas?!?

Page 414

“....accidentally-falling-in-love-with-your-sworn-enemy-at-the-absolute-worst-possible-time thing,”

Note: Honestly....enemies to lovers....why did this not click before now...i'm such an idiot.

Page 414

“Henry’s smiling so wide and bright that Alex thinks his heart’s going to break trying to hold the size of this entire moment, the completeness of it, a thousand years of history swelling inside his rib cage.”

Note: History is always being made, if you only remember to open your eyes. We could all make some history, huh?

<3

Final Note

A massive thank you to Casey for writing one of my favourite novels ever. And a huge thank you to all the artists & creators who’ve given permission to allow their art to make this post shine. You are all incredibly talented and I thank you for filling my life with the little bits of joy that you do. 

@vkelleyart​ @lanelart  @tali-zorahs @kayrosebee @thematicallycoherent  @amberneonlights @lavaslamps @mydearldydisdain​ @cenvast  @softerstorms​ 

[pusheen]

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© 브이HAN [1] please do not edit or crop logo

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[etherea1ity]

Kuju Flower Park, Japan

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Tardigrade

[depsidase]

[moringmark]

[runcibility]

I liked this post, scrolled for like another minute before I went “SHIT FUCK SHIT” and scrolled back to reblog it

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I always reblog this one when I see it on my dash. When someone posts their own art, writing, or music here they are really hoping you will share it.

[unyieldingsilence]

‎ ‎

[strayklds]

LEE KNOW LOG #12 👓

[evyltalks]

andreil in the heated rivalry ecosystem. again.

i can’t stop myself

[programmerhumour]

Once upon a time…

[friendly-neighborhood-ehrhardt]

[thebeanestbad]

[personification-of-anxiety]

I really wish the overused sentence “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” was less relevant but here we are

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[no-one-offical]

‎

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🐈‍⬛🐈🐈🐈‍⬛

[fairyslain]

I tried my best with this one and I really like how it turned out.

I think it looks cute.

Likes, reblogs and comments are always appreciated!

Commissions are open

[alexxuun]

Grace think fondly of his scar if you even care.

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