So, how is it that you don’t have a girlfriend?” I asked boldly.Joel shrugged.“Have you ever had a girlfriend?” There was no way that he’d never had a girlfriend.He shrugged again.“You’re not serious.”“You’re surprised?”“I’m sorry, do you own a mirror?”Joel laughed in that I’ll-never-understand-women kind of way. “I’ve never wanted one,” he admitted, though it seemed that there was more to it.“What? A mirror? Or a girlfriend?”He laughed again, even harder this time. “A girlfriend.”“Are you gay?” He smiled. “No, I’m not gay.”“Oh.” I blushed. Why was I being so nosy all of a sudden?

~ Shawn Kirsten Maravel

Shawn Kirsten Maravel Love Romance Severance Volition Young Adult

I was the silent and ever present figure in your life...but you.” I kissed the back of her hand softly and closed my eyes. You've always been the meaning of mine.

~ Shawn Kirsten Maravel

Shawn Kirsten Maravel Love Romance Severance Ya

I was investing more and more of myself into an outcome I couldn’t predict and would very likely be disappointed by. But for me there was no other option.

~ Shawn Kirsten Maravel

Shawn Kirsten Maravel Series Severance Volition Young Adult

‎''I froze. Like an idiot I froze. He was staring right at me. (...) He wore an innocent and mesmerizing smile directed right at me. I did my best to ignore it but having a gorgeously naked man staring at me like I was the only girl in the world was impossible to brush off.

~ Shawn Kirsten Maravel

Shawn Kirsten Maravel Love Love Story Severance Volition Ya

I knew that she couldn’t hear me if she was there. But the sound was enough to grab me, to hold me to hope, and with desperation that I’d never known before I knew that I must find my way back to her.

~ Shawn Kirsten Maravel

Shawn Kirsten Maravel Series Severance Volition Young Adult Fiction

A man may be absolutely poor and dispossessed of everything, and yet be wordly. Another man may be very wealthy and yet severed. Severance means that one's heart must not be attached to the things of this world. It does not mean that a man must dispossess himself of them, or that he must not work and earn or practice his profession, whatever it may be, in the world. It does not mean that he must not put on what he has. If he has a silk garb, let him wear that; and if he has not, but has a suit of cotton goods, let him wear that clean. He must feel the same in both.

~ Abdu'l-Bahá

Abdu'l-Bahá Contentment Severance