No one understands why we've been together two years, and that's because no one understands Amy like I do. She's brilliant, so brilliant that nothing goes fast enough for her, even though she finished school early and now she's the only woman at her engineering firm. That's a place where she has to be tough, and she can be. I never am, which is maybe why our band hasn't accomplished much. We've written some great songs, but we haven't gotten our tape to anyone important, and our drummer Eli quit for a while, and we haven't toured because I could never bear, even for a few days, to be away from Amy. I can't even remember what the world was like before I met her. I think I was lonely every day of my life.
When we're not together, everything seems lifeless and remote, like a black and white TV with the sound turned down. And then I see her, and it's like light through pink glass. I'm her best friend, and I guess I'm the only one who can see anything soft in her, a girl so strong and ambitious and not like a rose at all.