Variation Rebecca Yarros Quotes

Messy is good, love. Messy is where the best parts of life happen.

Truth always differs depending on who’s telling the story, and in complicated situations, there are countless variations.

And then she laughed. I fell in love with her all over again. Not the quiet, observant girl she’d been, or the friend I’d let down, but the woman she’d grown into, beautiful and strong, scarred and still laughing.

Dreams aren’t stagnant, Allie. They grow. They shift.

Why are you brave for everyone but yourself?

Messy is good, love. Messy is where the best parts of life happen. You don’t have to be in control at all times. It’s okay if you fall apart.

The curse of being in the right place at the right time is that sometimes there isn’t a right thing to do.

That is just a sparkly hall of mirrors, and staring too long through the lens of how other people perceive you is bound to start distorting how you see yourself.

Time began and ended with him.

Nostalgia hit with a wicked right hook.

This wasn’t chemistry. This was combustion. And I was here for it.

That’s a very real fact of life. I live in a constant state of wanting you. I have since I was seventeen years old. Wanting you is all I know.

First means nothing. Last means everything.

Messy is good, love. Messy is where the best parts of life happen. You don’t have to be in control at all times. It’s okay if you fall apart. I promise I will be right here to put you back together if you just let me.

This is the last time we’re discussing this,” Hudson warned. “I’m not breaking up with Allie. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever, if I get a say. Letting her go was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life, and I’ll be damned if your inability to pull your head out of your ass is going to cost me the only chance I have with her.

It’s never the same. There are a million variations of any situation. No two people are alike. The tiniest change to any encounter could leave us with very different results. I like to think of the possibilities as a tree. Maybe you start with the one path—” He tapped the nearest trunk. “But fate throws all the branches out and what seems like a tiny choice, left or right, becomes another and another, until the possibilities of what could have been are endless.

By the end of that summer, she was my best friend. By the end of the next, she hated me. And I didn’t blame her.

And when you’re ready to admit it, five minutes won’t cut it. I’ll devote hours, days, nights to being incredibly personal with you.

We were all doing the wrong things for what we thought were the right reasons,

I’ve waited eleven years to kiss you.

I couldn’t imagine a lifetime when I would ever tire of looking into his eyes.

irrevocably in love with,

I’d never wanted anyone—anything—the way I needed Allie. I kissed her like she was air and I’d spent the last decade swimming for the surface.

Because you’ve entered the find-out portion of your relationship,” Gavin answered. “You know, because you fucked around, and now—

Same team. Stop trying to draw my blood. Leaving Allie the first time bled me dry already.

Too fucking mine,

Observant could easily be mistaken for quiet, especially with that many siblings around.

You need to stop hiding behind what everyone else wants, because you’re the only one responsible for your happiness.

He did not just say that. Pretty sure my therapist heard that all the way from New York City.

Hudson, do me a favor and at least say goodbye to her this time before you go, would you? It would be a shame for me to go to jail for acting on a decade’s worth of intrusive thoughts when it comes to your demise.

So while sure, it makes me jealous that there are a couple of guys here who have seen you naked, I actually feel sorry for them because they’ll never have you again.” I tugged her close and let the words fly like the revelation they were. “But I will. First means nothing. Last means everything.” And

Ballerinas don’t eat strawberry shortcake, honey,” Caroline said. “Or ice cream, or cupcakes, or anything that might put an extra ounce on their perfect little bodies.” I sent up a silent prayer of forgiveness to Lina, because I was so fucking done. “She doesn’t eat strawberry shortcake because she’s allergic to strawberries,” Hudson snapped. “Hence why I got her a brownie. She loves chocolate. And before you start in on any more of your bullshit, let’s just get this over with. Her birthday is March seventh. Her favorite movie is Titanic, which I’ve never really understood, but fine, I’ll sit through it again. She prefers Bloch over Capezio for pointe shoes. She’d rather watch sunsets than sunrises, can annoyingly taste the difference between different types of bottled water, and puts sugar in her coffee and milk in her tea. Oh, and she’s only indecisive because too many people tell her what they think she should want, and she likes to make everyone happy at her own expense. Is that enough for you, Caroline?

It’s never the same. There are a million variations of any situation. No two people are alike. The tiniest change to any encounter could leave us with very different results. I like to think of the possibilities as a tree. Maybe you start with the one path— ... But fate throws all the branches out and what seems like a tiny choice, left or right, becomes another and another, until the possibilities of what could have been are endless.

So fucking mine,” he whispered

Messy is where the best parts of life happen. You don’t have to be in control at all times. It’s okay if you fall apart. I promise I will be right here to put you back together if you just let me.

After that kiss, I knew there would be a first time. And a thousandth. I’d never felt chemistry like that in my life. We were a foregone conclusion.

People say stupid shit when there’s no accountability for running their mouths,

Observant could easily be mistaken for quiet,

I’d never been camping, but it certainly couldn’t be that torturous if people went willingly.

Holy shit, Juniper had a mother who apologized. What a novelty.

This wasn’t chemistry. This was combustion.

If there had been a contest in our house for who could hold an awkward silence the longest, I would have a crown and we both knew it.

Forget logic and the very real reasons I’d ghosted her; every single scenario I pictured began and ended with the one thing I’d never done for any woman—groveling.

she was just fucking with my head, and I’d enjoyed every minute of it. I even considered sending her an engraved invitation to fuck with it some more.

He said I failed him.” The knife fell from her hand onto the cutting board, and she braced her palms flat on the gray marble. “How screwed up is that? I’m the one who went through the miscarriages, the IVF, the hormones, the—” Her head drooped. “But he’s the one who feels let down. Like I’m not heartbroken too?

Point is, I’m not mad at you for placing me for adoption—though I do have some questions that are statistically proven to help minimize the time I’ll need to spend in therapy.

If you can’t tell someone’s working their ass off for you, then they don’t deserve you.

Don’t fight.” I separated myself from the pain and pushed through another repetition. “It’s not a fight when I automatically win.

you can have everything you want if you’d just get out of your own way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for you getting the fuck out of here. Chase that dream. Yay, dreams.

Truth always differs depending on who’s telling the story, and in complicated situations, there are countless variations. But when it comes to that summer, in every single variant, I’m the asshole who wasn’t strong enough to hold on to her.

The second her gaze lifted to lock with mine, I forgot how to fucking breathe, let alone think. I’d never been hit by lightning, but I bet this was what it felt like.

If you want to see me in uniform, all you have to do is ask.” A playful smile tugged at his lips.

He fit himself into my life like sand poured into a jar full of pebbles, settling seamlessly into the spaces between the rocks. He was everywhere without making himself the priority.

It was me.” He took a breath, and I held mine. “It was me, Allie. I was there.

Variation,” I muttered, dismissing most of his words. “It’s called a variation.

Is that a rowboat?” “Out here? No way.” My head whipped to follow his line of sight, and I quickly spotted the small vessel about a hundred meters west, with what looked to be a small outboard motor and two people . . . ducking?

Lastly, because you’re my beginning and end, thank you again to my Jason. There’s a little of you in every hero I write.

The sixteen-year-old girl inside me stood up and cheered for him, but she was quickly hushed by the misanthrope I’d become.

So while sure, it makes me jealous that there are a couple of guys here who have seen you naked, I actually feel sorry for them because they’ll never have you again.” I tugged her close and let the words fly like the revelation they were. “But I will. First means nothing. Last means everything.

started, “but it turned out to be nothing.

There she is. God, I’ve missed you.

Peace settled in my soul, the same way it always did when we managed to get ourselves under one roof.

Because”—she straightened her shoulders—“you’re my biological mother.

The only person telling me what I could and couldn’t do was me.

Good girl.

I mean . . . on the bright side, we won’t have to push the beds together,” Hudson noted. “Kind of impossible when there’s only one of them.

But I will. First means nothing. Last means everything.

That was Eric’s primary skill—finding out what got under someone’s skin and protecting them if he considered them a friend, or digging at it until they bled if he didn’t.

Denying you the little orgasm you almost took so I can ruin you with the one I’m going to give you.

Will you just let me hold you for once?” His arms tightened. “You don’t have to handle everything on your own, Allie. You can be scared, and you can love Juniper even if it’s messy. Messy is good, love. Messy is where the best parts of life happen. You don’t have to be in control at all times. It’s okay if you fall apart. I promise I will be right here to put you back together if you just let me.” Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if I gave in,

Hudson might be the baddest motherfucker alive to the US Coast Guard, but you put Allie Rousseau in a room with him and he’ll trip over his own feet.

She usually lived in the back of my mind, but now she was up front and everywhere.

Grizzly Bear Bar

I thought I’d understood the meaning of yearning, but I hadn’t really. Not until right now.

Hell yes. Fuck yes. Absolutely yes. Screw a plan. Whatever she wanted, she could have.

Look at us, making it through the night without falling prey to the one-bed trope.” Her feet hit the floor. “The what?

He was heat and warmth, and I’d been so damned cold for too long.

How had he unraveled me so completely in only five freaking minutes?

I want that first kiss.

I wanted to be engraved, etched, and carved so deeply into her soul that she’d never get me out.

Whatever. Sleep was overrated. I breathed in anxiety and exhaled determination

You, Allie. You scared the shit out of me. Do you have any idea what you mean to me? You’re my air.

Savannah,

You are the subject of every fantasy I’ve ever had.

I was a kid in a candy store and Allie was pure sugar.

I kissed her like she was air and I’d spent the last decade swimming for the surface.

I will do anything to be with you, to keep you, to make this work. I have never felt anything more real in my life.

You’re going to ruin me for anyone else, aren’t you?

He was absolutely ruining me, and I was letting him.

Oh, and as for Hudson, he’s built like a Greek god and fucks like one, too, so I’m all taken care of.

Whatever I said or did in the next five minutes would determine if I ever got the chance to actually know her, or if this would be a one-time encounter that always left me wondering.

Anything is doable for five minutes.

I was a dreamer who’d fallen in love with a dreamer, and it was time to stop dreaming and act.

That . . .” I glanced pointedly at her phone. “That is just a sparkly hall of mirrors, and staring too long through the lens of how other people perceive you is bound to start distorting how you see yourself.

I knew the feeling of chasing daylight all too well.

it makes me jealous that there are a couple of guys here who have seen you naked, I actually feel sorry for them because they’ll never have you again.” I tugged her close and let the words fly like the revelation they were. “But I will. First means nothing. Last means everything.

of never settling for the skills you have now, knowing that you might be phenomenal, but still striving for that unattainable feeling of perfection.

I didn’t want to be some anonymous, fleeting, erasable guest in her life like the others who had come before me. I wanted to be engraved, etched, and carved so deeply into her soul that she’d never get me out.

Are you . . .” God, I’d felt how hard he was. “Okay?” He nodded once. “Nothing deflates me faster than the sight of your little sister.