"Neither did I, my first time." 

That is a sentence that means that Raine should be hugged!

"I don't... actually think it's bad. Or if it is I like being bad."

"If there's anything good in me, it's you," he says again, adjusts the way he's holding Lev to put more pressure on the curve of his back. 

"There are actually lots of good things in you. You're good all the way through."

He would be skeptical — will be skeptical, later — but with Lev soft and warm and satisfied in his arms smiling like that it's almost impossible not to believe him. 

Cuddlepile?

As long as nobody minds if the only person here he has eyes for is Lev. 

Nobody does mind that!

At least Lev doesn't.

She has the best softest boyfriend. And the best boyfriend-adjacent person, and the best whatever Marlo is. 

(She doesn't want to go back.) 

(She's going to have to, though.) 

"I'll stay at True Directions until the end of step three," Asher says, "and then I'll stay at Ron's house until the end of camp."

"After the end of step three I probably won't be able to visit." She's holding him a little too tight. 

"I'll write. And when you have unmonitored Internet you'll get so many letters."

"Are we going to run?" Lev says to Marlo.

"I turn eighteen in August, I could get a GED instead of finishing school — I was always planning on joining the military but that just seems like a worse idea now —" 

"I'm only sixteen. I guess I could be on the run for two years and then get a GED but then-- I couldn't go to college really."

"Why not?" Raine says from Asher's shoulder. 

"I mean I'd have to get a full ride either way and I'm not sure how many colleges give a full ride to someone who has spent the last two years running away from their parents instead of going to school."

"...do you know what you would want to go to college for?" 

"Not... really? Probably something where I make a lot of money?"

"I bet there are trade schools that would get you that. Or an apprenticeship where you'd be working at the same time." 

"...I like learning things? I really want to spend four years where I don't have to do anything except study. Sorry."

"No, it's fine, I'm not against college, it just — sounded like something I'd hear from someone who didn't really get that they had other options. Sorry." 

"...I don't know. I haven't really thought about other things. But math is the only thing I'm really good at."

Asher's hair is very soft. 

"What would you do if you could be good at anything? —this isn't about the college thing, I'm just curious."