We gravitated towards each other because we both love books and speculating out loud about how odd the world is. At one point, as part of the hijinks, Alice set off sprinting and I took it as an invitation to race. I thought for a second she must be kidding, there’s no way she could have hurt herself that badly. It was my way of saying sorry without throwing myself at her feet in a sickening display of guilt. The experience has shown me how solid our friendship is, because if there was ever a reason not to speak to someone any more, it’s because they broke your leg.

Source: The Guardian June 11, 2021 09:00 UTC