RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS [2001]

The Story Of A Girl Who Did Everything Wrong, 

But Got Everything Right

Sometimes we love people so much that we have to be numb to it. 

Because if we actually felt how much we love them, it would kill us. 

That doesn't make you a bad person. 

It just means your heart's too big.

[Fay]

[Raymond Hasek]: Please marry me, Bev. Because I'm shit without you.

[Beverly]: Oh how romantic... a marriage proposal that contains the word 'shit.'

There on a wind-swept bluff, he stands waiting. 

The man of your dreams. 

The man that will love you more than anything else for the rest of your life. 

You run to each other. 

Your bodies, your lips, they're coming closer, and closer together, until finally, you kiss. 

[Beverly, age 11]

Dear mom and pop, the immediate prospect of your reading this letter so shatters my spirit, it makes me a stranger to myself. 

Your fears over my behavior, which I thought arbitrary and unreasonably restrictive, seem now the stuff of wisdom. 

I have terrible news I'm withholding from you. 

But now, like the poison from an adder's tongue, I have to spit it out. 

I am pregnant.

[Beverly]

You say that you can't quit. I believe you. 

But if you stay and you ruin our lives, and you know that you will, then it's my fault. 

Do you want me to live that?

[Beverly]

 Remember, I am your mother. 

And that means you're not allowed to stay mad at me. 

[Beverly to young Jason]

[Beverly]: I'm a horrible mother! 

[Jason, age 6]: Yeah... 

[Jason]: Who says I'm in one piece? 

[Beverly]: You're the most normal person I know. 

[Jason]: Normal? Normal? 

Amelia was in New York two weeks ago. 

She wants me to transfer. She wants me to enroll in her school. 

But I can't go. I can't leave you. 

Cause if something bad happens... [crying] it's my fault. 

I'm what went wrong in your life. 

You know, you wrote a book about it. 

I swore I wouldn't - 

Did you know that I love Amelia? 

Don't worry, she left already. 

Here's the funny thing. 

She thinks I can't love her because she can't make me happy... and damn it, she's the only good thing in my life. 

I'm just incredibly screwed up. 

Just so we're real clear about this, I blame you. 

[Beverly]: When does this job ever end? 

[Jason]: You call it a job? 

[Beverly]: Well, what do you think it is? A calling?

*****