Aaron Warner Anderson Quotes

Do you know," he says, closing the cover of the journal only to lay his hand on top of it. Protecting it. Staring at it. "I couldn't sleep for days after I read that entry. I kept wanting to know which people were chasing you down the street, who it was you were running from. I wanted to find them," he says, so softly, "and I wanted to rip their limbs off, one by one. I wanted to murder them in ways that would horrify you to hear. ~ Tahereh Mafi

There are three things you should know about me, love." He steps forward.
"The first," he says, "is that I hate my father more than you might ever be capable of understanding."
He clears his throat.
"Second, is that I am an unapologetically selfish person, who, in almost every situation, makes decisions based entirely on self-interest. And third." A pause as he looks down. Laughs a little.
"I never had any intention of using you as a weapon. ~ Tahereh Mafi

So you know how to get there?"
"Of course."
"But your father said you couldn't remember anything about Omega Point."
Warner glances over, his eyes laughing. "How convenient for us that I've regained my memory. ~ Tahereh Mafi

What difference does it make?" he says. "People can think whatever they like. I don't desire their validation."
"So you don't mind," I ask him, "that people judge you so harshly?"
"I have no one to impress," he says. "No one who cares about what happens to me. I'm not in the business of making friends, love. My job is to lead an army, and it's the only thing I'm good at. No one," he says, "would be proud of the things I've accomplished. My mother doesn't even know me anymore. My father thinks I'm weak and pathetic. My soldiers want me dead. The world is going to hell. And the conversations I have with you are the longest I've ever had. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Aaron Warner Anderson is the only emotional through line in my life that ever made sense. He's the only constant. The only steady, reliable heartbeat I've ever had. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I'm nineteen years old," he clarifies. "I'm a fairly impressive specimen for my age, I know. ~ Tahereh Mafi

We are synonyms but not the same. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I loved making you mad," he says to me, his eyes wicked. "I love making you mad. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Don't do that," he says. "Don't ask me questions you already know the answers to. Twice I've laid myself bare to you and all it's gotten me was a bullet wound and a broken heart. Don't torture me," he says, meeting my eyes again.
"It's a cruel thing to do, even to someone like me. ~ Tahereh Mafi

In a world where there is so much to grieve and so little good to take? I grieve nothing. I take everything. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Marry me,' he whispers.
I stare at him, disbelief and joy colliding. And it's the look in his eyes - the hopeful, terrified look in his eyes - that nearly kills me. I'm suddenly crying.
I clasp my hands over my face. A sob escapes my mouth. Gently, he pries my hands away from my face.
'Ella?' he says, his words barely a whisper.
I'm still crying when I throw my arms around his neck, still crying when he says, a little nervously -
'Sweetheart, I really need to know if this means yes or no - '
'Yes,' I cry, slightly hysterical. 'Yes, yes to everything with you. Yes to forever with you. Yes. ~ Tahereh Mafi

You're perfect," I tell him, so overcome I forget myself. "All of you. Your entire body.
Proportionally. Symmetrically. You're absurdly, mathematically perfect. It doesn't even make sense
that a person could look like you, ~ Tahereh Mafi

He kisses me again, his occasional gasps for air hot against my skin, and I taste him, his mouth, his neck, the hard line of his jaw and he fights back a groan, pulls away, pain and pleasure twinning together as he moves deeper, harder, his muscles taught, his body rock solid against mine. He has one hand around the back of my neck, the other around the back of my thigh and he wraps us together, impossibly closer, overwhelming me with an extraordinary pleasure that feels like nothing I've ever known. It's nameless. Unknowable, impossible to plan for. It's different every time. ~ Tahereh Mafi

He says : " please don't shoot me for this "
and he kissed me . ~ Tahereh Mafi

Every single time you claim to understand even a fraction of what I'm feeling, I want to disembowel you. I want to sever your carotid artery. I want to rip out your vertebrae, one by one. You have no idea what it is to love her," he says angrily. "You couldn't even begin to imagine. So stop trying to understand. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I sold my soul for a few years with my mother, and now, after everything, I don't even know if it'll be worth it.

- Warner ~ Tahereh Mafi

Years of practice have taught me to bury my emotions as a reflex - especially in his presence - and it takes a few seconds for the feelings to emerge. They form slowly, infinite hands reaching up from infinite graves to fan the ancient rage I've never really allowed myself to touch. ~ Tahereh Mafi

In the steady thrum that accompanies quiet, my mind is unkind to me. I think too much. I feel, perhaps, far more than I should. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that my goal in life is to outrun my mind, my memories. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I want this up and I want these down ~ Tahereh Mafi

t's a torrent of feeling, a simultaneous, ephemeral taste of death and bliss and my eyes close, white - hot heat flashes behind my eyelids and I have to fight the need to call out his name even as I feel us shatter together, destroyed and restored all at once and he gasps
He says, " Juliette - ~ Tahereh Mafi

But now Warner's eyes are moving, studying me. He looks at me with such intensity I wonder if he's even aware he's doing it. I wonder if he knows that when he looks at me like that I can feel it as acutely as if his bare skin were pressed against my own, that it does things to me when he looks at me like that and it makes me crazy. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I can't help but be amazed at the power such small, unassuming animals wield over us; they so easily break down our defences. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Twice.
Once for Adam.
Once for Warner. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Forgive me. I know it all seems stupid now, but I don't want to take anything for granted anymore. Forgive me for hurting you. Forgive me for not trusting you. I took my pain out on you and I'm so sorry. I was selfish, and I hurt you, and I'm so sorry.

- Ella ~ Tahereh Mafi

Because I was dying.
　　And Warner could've let me die. He was angry and hurt and had every reason to be bitter. I'd just ripped his heart out; I'd let him believe something would come of our relationship. I let him confess the depth of his feelings to me; I let him touch me in ways even Adam hadn't. I didn't ask him to stop.
　　Every inch of me was saying yes.
　　And then I took it all back. Because I was scared, and confused, and conflicted. Because of Adam.
　　Warner told me he loved me, and in return I insulted him and lied to him and yelled at him and pushed him away. And when he had the chance to stand back and watch me die, he didn't.
　　He found a way to save my life.
　　With no demands. No expectations. Believing full well that I was in love with someone else, and that saving my life meant making me whole again only to give me back to another guy.
　　And right now, I can't say I know what Adam would do if I were dying in front of him. I'm not sure if he would save my life. And that uncertainty alone makes me certain that something wasn't right between us. ~ Tahereh Mafi

He destroyed her dress the night before our wedding. Like a monster. I'm going to murder him. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I'm having a panic attack, you inconsiderate ass. ~ Tahereh Mafi

And I realize then, in a moment that terrifies me, that I want this, forever. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I want to build a future with her. I want to grow old with her.
I want to marry her. ~ Tahereh Mafi

This is, after all, what we're fighting for, isn't it?

A second chance at joy.

- Ella ~ Tahereh Mafi

Do you like Shakespeare?" he asks me. An odd segue.
I shake my head. "All I know about him is that he stole my name and spelled it wrong. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I don't consider myself a moral man. I do not philosophize about life or bother with laws and principles that govern most people. I do not pretend to know the difference between right and wrong. But I do live by a certain kind of code. And somethimes, I think, you have how to shoot first. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Ignite, my love. Ignite. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Juliette-Julietter, love, wake up-wake up"
...
Warner's hands cup my face. The warmth of his skin helps calm me somehow, and I finally feel my heart rate begin to slow. "Look at me." he says.
I force myself to meet his eyes, shaking as I catch my breath.
"It's okay," he whispers, still holding my cheeks. "It was just a bad dream. Try closing your mouth," he says, "and breathing through your nose." He nods. "There you go. Easy. You're okay." His voice is so soft, so melodic, so inexplicably tender.
...
"I won't let you go until you are ready," he tells me. "Don't worry take your time. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I don't want you to be repulsed by me. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Because something inside of my heart is ripping apart and it feels like fear, it tastes like panic and anxiety and desperation and I don't know how to understand th image in front of me. I don't want to see Warner like this. I don't want to think of him as anything other than a monster.
This isn't right ~ Tahereh Mafi

but there's something about the way he looks at me that makes him seem older than our years combined ~ Tahereh Mafi

Right now all I want is this. I just want to be here. With you. Whatever comes next, we'll face it together. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I love you, " he says , his words harsh and soft all at once. " I love you and it isn't enough . I thought it would be enough and I was wrong. I thought I could fight for you and I was wrong. Because I can't . I can't even face you anymore - " " Aaron - " " Tell me it isn't true , " he says. " Tell me I'm wrong . Tell me I'm blind. Tell me you love me. ~ Tahereh Mafi

So she told me a story. A story about a boy who was born with very green eyes, and the man who was so captivated by their color that he searched the world for a stone in exactly the same shade." His voice is fading now, falling into whispers so quiet I can hardly hear him. "She said the boy was me. That this ring was made from that very same stone, and that the man had given it to her, hoping one day she'd be able to give it to me. It was his gift, she said, for my birthday." He stops. Breathes. "And then she took it off, slipped it on my index finger, and said, 'If you hide your heart, he will never be able to take it from you'. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Warner leans back, just a little. "Tell me what you want," he says desperately. "Tell me what to do," he says, "and I'll do it."

"This is, by far, the craziest shit I have ever seen," Kenji says. "I really never would've believed it. Not in a million years."

"It's like a soap opera." Ian nods. "But with worse acting. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Everything I was, everything I did, everything I am, was forged from the twins of their action and inaction. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Stop.
Stop time.
Stop the world.
Stop everything for the moment he crosses the room and pulls me into his arms and pins me against the wall and I'm spinning and standing and not even breathing but I'm alive so very very alive. ~ Tahereh Mafi

And if you insist on continuing to make assumptions about my character, I'll advise you only this: assume you will always be wrong. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Let go of me, I scream, but, oh, only in my imagination because my lips are finished working and my heart has just expired and my mind has gone to hell for the day and my eyes my eyes I think they're bleeding ... ~ Tahereh Mafi

I feel it, I feel my thin morals dissolving. I feel my flimsy, moth-eaten skin of humanity begin to come apart, and with it, the veil keeping me from complete darkness. There are no lines I won't cross. No illusions of mercy.

I wanted to be better for her. For her happiness. For her future.

But if she's gone, what good is goodness?

- Warner ~ Tahereh Mafi

You are so confident," he says to me. "You're stubborn and resilient. So brave. So strong. So inhumanly beautiful. You could conquer the world. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Gone is the boy with the guns and the skeletons in his closet. These hands holding me have never held a weapon. These hands have never touched death. These hands are perfect and kind and tender. ~ Tahereh Mafi

After a few miles, I push play and the audiobook starts. It might be nice to ride through the night, believing in magic for a while, magic of either the Hogwarts variety or the Muggle sort that will keep Daniel alive.
But Aaron and Taylor must have been in the car a lot over the last few days, because they're way past the point where we left off. And I'd forgotten how dark this one is at the end. They're past the Ministry of Magic and back at Hogwarts now, where Dumbledore and Harry are arguing about Voldemort. About Voldemort crawling inside Harry's head and trying to control him.
Way too close to what happened in the lab for comfort.
Deo and I both reach to turn it off at the same time. ~ Rysa Walker

Juice fasting destroys your metabolic rate. I see a lot of women who are like, 'Oh, I lost seven pounds and then I gained 10.' That's not what detoxification is about. ~ Tracy Anderson

Now I understand that sometimes you cannot protect your loved ones, no matter how hard you try. Life and death happen, and it is out of our control. ~ Tiana Warner

He couldn't believe how badly he wanted to spank that sexy little ass in her faded blue jeans. Squeeze it and spank it and rub it. And bang it.

He wanted to bang Beverly Anderson.

Jesus H. Christ. ~ Penny Watson

All you're supposed to do is every once in a while give the boys a little tea and sympathy. ~ Robert Anderson

I have a big problem with people who glamorize dumbness and demonize education and intellect. And I'm giving a pretty good description of Sarah Palin right now. ~ Aaron Sorkin