I realized at that moment - observing his form move further away without once turning back - that I’d already begun to rebuild the imaginary wall between us. I was shielding my heart with stone-cold feelings again, the only way I knew to protect it. Furthermore, I still planned to try my hand at prayer. If God granted me this one request, if I could keep my only friend, I would give anything in return, even the treasured books trapped beneath my arm. I’d tasted enough of a dismal life to know that a real, true friend was of greater worse than the collection of every imagined fairy tale in the world.

Dandelions: The Disappearance of Annabelle Fancher