The Truth About Forever(108)

"Nice form," he said.

"Likewise."

We ran for a second in silence. Up ahead, all I could see was beach and sky.

"You ready?" he asked.

I nodded. "Go ahead. It's your turn."

"Okay," he said. "Let's see…"

We'd start slow, the way we always did, because the run, and the game, could go on for awhile. Maybe even forever.

That was the thing. You just never knew. Forever was so many different things. It was always changing, it was what everything was really all about. It was twenty minutes, or a hundred years, or just this instant, or any instant I wished would last and last. But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening. Right then, as I ran with Wes into that bright sun, and every moment afterwards. Look, there. Now. Now. Now.





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SARAH DESSEN is the author of five previous books for young adults, each one named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Her most recent book, This Lullaby, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. How to Deal, a New York Times best-seller, brought together Dessen's That Summer and Someone Like You in a tie-in edition to the movie of the same name.

Sarah Dessen is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she now teaches creative writing. She lives in Chapel Hill.