Paper Towns Novels & Stories

"I can't accept you either. Unless you're talking about divorce, stop wasting my time." "That's it, Willow! You've been after me for four years, hoping I'd marry you. You think I can't survive without you? Fine. Since you want a divorce so badly, we'll divorce right after Christmas!" "Great." The day we were set to go to the courthouse happened to be the same day I was leaving. Luckily, my train wasn't until the afternoon, so there was just enough time to finalize the divorce and still make my departure. Christmas Eve was lively in its own way. I warmed up a frozen pizza and sat by the window, watching the fireworks light up the night sky.

The public library printer hummed, spitting out the first page while the progress bar crawled across the monitor. My fingers hovered over the keyboard to guard the downloaded P*F. The original, the heavy parchment with the actual embossed seal, was still safe, hidden in the locked drawer at home. These were just reprints. Replacements for the ones he had torn up last year. I just wanted to see my name on a paper again, to prove to myself that I still existed outside of this apartment.