How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I regret everything that happened with Vera. Even back in grade school when I cut up the leprechaun picture. It's hard to explain. As far as I was concerned, I didn't have a choice. I was born to a man like my father and a woman like my mother, and I had to save Vera from myself. (1.14.1)
In a way, Charlie Kahn blames himself for his own death and everything that happened with Vera. That doesn't mean that he wants to take the blame for the pet shop fire—he just wants to make amends with Vera for being such a horrible friend toward the end.
Quote #2
Now that Charlie is gone, she ignores me again. I think she thinks she's safe now, because it's been three and a half months and I haven't said anything about what really happened on the night he died. But she's not. (1.16.9)
Jenny Flick thinks that she's gotten away with the pet shop fire and Charlie's death, but she's not safe yet. Even if Vera isn't coming out with what she knows quite yet, she's got the means to take Jenny down.
Quote #3
Maybe the adults around me were too cynical and old to do anything to help innocent people like Mrs. Kahn or Charlie, or the black kids who were called n***** at school, or the girls Tim Miller groped on the bus. Maybe they were numb enough to blame the system for things they were too lazy to change. (2.5.66)
Adults like Ken Dietz blame the system instead of actually doing something about the injustices that are happening in their own neighborhoods. Vera feels like this makes them all complicit in the bad things that are happening, like the abuse at the Kahns' house.