Emma Mills > Quotes

“Dreams don’t have to be realistic—that’s why they’re dreams. You have to work to make them happen. Or else they would just be … realities.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“You know those people where it’s like, you know they could kill you, but it would be a privilege to die by their hand?”
― Emma Mills, Foolish Hearts

“We should’ve looked before,” Vera says, her voice soft. “We could’ve saved you the trouble.”

“Are you kidding? The trouble was the best part.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“They dated," Frank says, with just a little too much relish. "For two years. They were the shiniest golden couple of our class. What a match, you know? Both gorgeous. She's super smart--does student government, debate, choir, all that business. He does the sports and volunteers with his dad's church, has those puppy eyes that make you want to buy him a boat--"
"Do they?"
"Yes, gaze deeply into his eyes next time--you'll feel it." He takes a long draw from his drink and then continues. "Anyway, they were the kind of couple where it's like, separate--they're great. But together, it's . . . star magic."
"Star magic?"
"From the universe. Celestial bodies aligning and shit. That kind of magic.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“Mandy made pot roast for dinner," Vera says. "It was truly terrible. Do you want some?"
Gabe rolls his eyes. "I'm so glad you're in retail, with pitches like that. You must be the best. 'Here try this product - it's awful.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“Aurelie swallowed. “I’m afraid I have little use for things that have no purpose.” “Why not have something just because it brings you joy?”
― Emma Mills, Something Close to Magic

“Something perfect can end and something broken can endure.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“I wish she were here.” She is, people would say. She’s smiling down at you. She’ll be with you every step of the way. Yes, I always wanted to reply. Yes, maybe. But that is nowhere near the same. It is in exactly no way the same as actually being.”
― Emma Mills, Famous in a Small Town

“I think I get it, I really do. The appeal of the fic. At least for me. It’s the chance to remake something you love so that every little bit of it suits your vision for it. How it should have been in the past or how it should go in the future. How it would happen in an entirely different place, in an entirely different world.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“It just is because it is, it exists because there's no other way than it existing.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“We're not a couple."
"Well, you should be," I say, in one of those moments where my mouth and brain seem to disconnect from each other. "You seem good together."
No, but like what in the actual fuck are you doing? part of me says.
LOOK HOW CHILL I AM, the part in control replies.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“After all, it's where the teens are at, Brit has said. It's the zone for teens. We almost can't exist in any other kind of zone. Child Zone? Forget it. Adult Zone? Fuck that noise. I am for the Teen Zone only.
She also often used it as a euphemism: I want to put my Teen Zone on his Teen one. I want her all up in my Teen Zone.”
― Emma Mills, Famous in a Small Town

“I consider it for a moment. I could consider it for a lot of moments, if left unchecked. Not just the kiss in the hall outside the auditorium, but the ones in the parking lot afterward and at the cast party and on the street outside after the cast party. Gideon with his cheeks flushed and his eyes bright, close enough that he was blurry saying I like you, you know. Like so much, so much, so much— each one punctuated by a kiss to a different place.”
― Emma Mills, Foolish Hearts

“I wanted to apologize more, to press him further, and I wasn't even sure why. That would just make it even more about me and about making myself feel better. Maybe sometimes you just have to ride out the discomfort of your own guilt. I don't know what more I wanted from him other than "No worries." To demand the exact words "I forgive you"? That was absolutely unreasonable.”
― Emma Mills, Lucky Caller

“Remy told me,” he says. “How you saw the mom with the day care. I thought maybe … He said Day Care Mom wasn’t happy with this one. So I thought maybe you could give it a home.”

He turns the painting around. It’s the red dock, jutting out into the water, with the bright sun beating down, warming it from the inside out. If you squint, it almost looks like Bree’s dock.

“How did you get it?”

“Remy went back with me,” he says. “She really wanted to get rid of it. It was a bargain. She was asking almost fifty grand less than Jack Fine.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“You didn’t have to do what you did. Any of it. But you did.”

“Yeah, well. You know. It was … for a good cause.”

“What cause?”

“You.”

We look at each other for a moment, and it’s Gabe who looks away first.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“Loneliness what a kind of wanting, but it was also this incredible freedom. Not having to rely on anyone or have anyone rely on her. No one to disappoint or be disappointed by. Alone was good and comforting and dependable.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“So I just open up my arms and Vera leans against me, and Gabe steps closer, putting one hand on her hair and petting it absently. None of us say anything. The city pulses on around us, and I’m not sure which one of us is anchoring the others, but I’ve never felt less adrift.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“Do that thing,” Gabe says finally, “where you say something funny and distract us.”

“I thought you hated that.”

“It’s one of my favorite things about you,” he says, and it’s honest, earnest. I blink.

“Well, it’s not funny, exactly, but I read this thing … I read this thing that said maybe fingerprints are formed when a fetus pushes their hands up against the inside of the womb. So if that’s true, it means you’re actually walking around with the blueprints to your mom’s uterus on your hands.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“He thought, I would do whatever it takes, so long as she keeps existing.”
― Emma Mills, Something Close to Magic

“I just look up at Gideon’s face, at the smile blooming there, with his unfathomable dimples, and his eyes that you need Google Maps to find your way out of, warm and bright and shining.”
― Emma Mills, Foolish Hearts

“Hey, Gabe's here," I say.
"I am."
"He is."
I look at Remy. Remy looks back at me. I raise my eyebrows emphatically, but he just scrunches his lower in confusion.
Don't say anything about the painting, my eyes are trying to say.
I have no idea what you mean, his eye are saying back.”
― Emma Mills

“I glance over at Gabe. Maybe I was wrong about me. About being for no one. I don’t know what the future holds. My dad is right—there are no guarantees. None. But I pick up Gabe’s hand and lace our fingers together, and that’s enough in this moment.

We look out at the water, and that is more than enough for now.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“a beauty with teeth.”
― Emma Mills, Something Close to Magic

“Sass levels are high.”
― Emma Mills, First & Then

“I could never really get it. I could never really understand. But I could strive for empathy. I could at least do that.”
― Emma Mills, First & Then

“When I say I love you, jamie, I mean it as my friend, and I mean it as a Sounds of the Nineties team member, and as a neighbor, and as a bagel maker. And as a co-worker, and as a good person, a kind person, as Prince Hapless, as you. When we were little kids, before I even knew what it was. And now. Now I love you how… how you love someone that you’re in love with. Also. There’s also that.”
― Emma Mills, Lucky Caller

“I should've been better. But sometimes all you can really stand to do is think about yourself. Sometimes it's the only way to cope. The only way to make sense of something as colossal and intimidating as the world is to make it about you.”
― Emma Mills, First & Then

“Coordinates,” I say. “Right?”

He wrinkles his brow but then follows my gaze to the string of numbers below his palm.

“Yeah,” he says. “For the beach at Grayson. It’s, uh, it’s where we scattered our mom’s ashes.”

“Gabe’s a sap,” Vera says.

“It’s not sappy,” I reply automatically, but Vera just smiles.
“I know. I’m just making fun. It’s my job because I’m older.”

“Are you?”

“Yup. I existed in the world without him for nine whole minutes.” It starts light, joking, but her voice is soft by the end: “I never want to go through that again.”
― Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends

“Labor Day is really the last sweet taste of summer. One final pardon before all your Mondays become Mondays again.”
― Emma Mills, First & Then

“Do you have, like...stuff to do?" he said finally. "While the girls are asleep?"
"Yeah. I usually go through Kyle and Heather's room. Tyr on all their clothes, roll around in their bed. That kind of thing.”
― Emma Mills, Famous in a Small Town