Get a life, Chloe Brown

'[…] What matters is that, for years, I had no idea what was really happening to my body. No painkillers, no plysical therapy, no medical support whatsoever. So I did what I had to do. I developed my own coping mechanisms. The problem is, they weren’t particularly healthy.'
He wondered what it was like, to cope constantly. Tiring, probably. Stressful, definitely. Doing it alone didn’t sound healthy at all.
'I avoided anything that might make me feel worse,' she said. 'I was afraid.' No inflection. No emotion. As if she was reading someone else’s story from a sheet of paper. 'I quit netball. I quit my postgrad degree. I stopped going out with my friends. I didn’t stay up late because sleep was too precious. I refused to make plans because I never knew when my body might force me to change them. My friends disappeared one by one. I suppose my problems made them feel guilty.'

'Excuse me, universe,' she whispered to the kitchen floor. 'When you almost murdered me today—which was rather brutal, by the way, but I can respect that—were you trying to tell me something?'
The universe, very enigmatically, did not respond.
[…]
Oh dear. Her moment of communication with the universe rudely interrupted, Chloe hauled herself into a sitting position. Strangely, she was now feeling much better. Perhaps because she had recognized and accepted the universe’s message.
It was time, clearly, to get a life.

'I’m the kind of person who hurts. Too much.'
'No,' Gigi corrected calmly. 'You are a woman who, in a life filled with pain, came here to ask about love.'
[…]
She was the woman who’d come here to ask about love.
She was the woman who’d decided to change her entire life with nothing but a list.
She was the woman who survived, every single day.
She was Chloe fucking Brown, and she was starting to wonder if she’d been brave from the beginning. If she’d just needed to love herself enough to realize it.

'I watched because... when you paint,' she said softly, 'you seem so vital. It was addictive. It felt like coming to life.'

Life hurts,” he said fiercely. “It’s unavoidable. But I know the difference between torture and growing pains.