"She didn’t want to like him more than he liked her.
“We’ll figure it out.” He set his hand down on the book of fairy tales, seeming to notice it for the first time. “You were reading this?”
She nodded. “I was kind of surprised to find it on your bookshelf. I didn’t really read fairy tales when I was a kid. I thought they were … I don’t know, too juvenile? But they’re different than I thought. Darker. So far, I think ‘The Little Mermaid’ is my favorite.”
“You like sad endings?” he asked.
“Maybe.” Mira swallowed. She hadn’t thought of it like that, but maybe it was true. She didn’t love the romance in the story; she loved the yearning, the despair, the mermaid’s noble sacrifice. It stabbed her heart and made her feel in a way that happy endings didn’t.
Because if you could love someone, and keep loving them, without being loved back … then that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.
“Sad endings are what I know,” she said."
--- Kill Me Softly / Sarah Cross
On a non-stalking/Romantic theme:
"“What about you?” she asked, to change the subject. “What’s your favorite fairy tale?”
Grimacing, Felix stretched out on the bed. “I don’t really like fairy tales.”
“But … you have this book.” It didn’t fit with the rest of his stuff. Why would he keep it if he didn’t like it?
“It’s been in the family a while,” he said. “My dad would be annoyed if I threw it away. And I used to like them. But I guess the novelty wore off. I got sick of reading about torture and dismemberment and … happy endings that get handed out at random, to people who don’t deserve them.”"