Snippet #34

“You’re a poet, Soph.”

She laughed. “No, I’m not. I’m a muse. Others see beauty through me. I don’t make art; they do, and they make the world a better place because of it.”

Snippet #33

“It's not premarital sex if you never intend to get married,” Jonáš wagged his eyebrows suggestively. 

But despite the playfulness of his words, there was a sadness in his face. We both knew there was a good chance that neither of us could get married, even if we wanted to.

This Better Not Become A Thing

Okay, for two weekends in a row, I've had to clean up a drunk person's puke. I'm just saying, this better not become a thing. That is not okay. Whatever unconscious signal I gave out that said I was okay with this, I'm retracting it right now. IT IS NO LONGER OKAY.

Snippet #32

“When you walk into this church, don’t you just get overwhelmed with this sense of. . .” Marek struggled for words, “Divine intervention almost.”

Sophie shook her head. “No, not really.”

            “But Sophie, religion. This beautiful church, because God.”  Marek looked puzzled. I knew why. Standing in front of him was the girl that cried over the beauty of mosques she’d never see, and yet she seemingly felt nothing in a beautiful Gothic church.

            Sophie gave Marek a dirty look, “No. This beautiful church, because humans.”

            “So you’re saying God has nothing to do with this, at all?”

“Yes. Isn’t it better to be moved by the actions of people? To say, someone like me made this church. Someone designed it. Someone built it. God didn’t do that. We did. That’s like saying because Van Gogh’s father was a pastor that God blessed Van Gogh with his artistic brilliance. No. Van Gogh made masterpieces. I won’t have you trivialize Van Gogh by claiming God meant for him to do so. Isn’t Van Gogh enough?”

Snippet #31

           “I took 8 showers in a row – and I still felt dirty. I still feel dirty now, and I don’t even know if that’s normal.” Sophie’s fingers traced the rim of the coffee mug in her hands. Sophie didn’t even drink coffee. The smell of it just calmed her down.

            Jonáš came into the kitchen. “Wow. Super hygienic, aren’t you?”

            Sophie ignored him.

            I cleared my throat.

            The silence was stifling. 

Snippet #30

 “I don’t know how you can be so heartless, I mean, I gave you mine.”

            “No. you didn’t give me your heart. You didn’t give me love. You gave me friendship and expected sex. Do you not see how fucked up that is? Do you not see how worthless that makes me feel? I’m sorry that for once I wanted to be seen as a person, and not as your sexual pleasure. I’m sorry that you got stuck with the crappy consolation prize that is my friendship. Oh yeah, you’re a real nice guy.”

Snippet #29

 “Why is romance the only love that matters to people? What about the friendships? Doesn’t that count? Does the feeling of a friendship so meaningful that you feel it deep inside of you and know that they are a part of you and you them, does that not count? What makes romance so fucking special? What makes romance better? It’s easier to replace a love interest than it is to replace a friend that understands you without words, that knows how to make you laugh when no one else can, that you can tell your secrets to and not be judged. I just don’t get it.”

Snippet #28

 “Hun, don’t let your dreams scare you away.”

Snippet #27

“There is some beauty in suburbs, don’t get me wrong. The idea that there is a kind of beauty in repetition – quirks within a set design – that makes it beautiful. But it’s so hard to find beauty in a place where you feel so out of place.”

“But we’re all out of place here too, Sophie. We don’t really fit in Prague.”

“Yeah, but we’re all out of place together.”

Snippet #26

Jonáš looked defeated. “What’s so wrong with wanting to make movies anyway?” His voice went soft and you could hear the tears he was holding back.

Then it clicked. Jonáš met up with his parents today.

Sophie got up and gave him a hug. “It’ll be okay. They just want you to be okay. Everyone is a bit hypocritical when it comes to their children. Maybe that’s why parents drive children crazy. And maybe all children are too critical of their parents, which is why all children drive their parents crazy. But I promise you, they just want you to be okay.”

Marek looked rueful, “The older you get, the less of a future you have.”

Snippet #25

"Díky za můj sendvič ."

Snippet #24

            “Marek! Give me my sandwich back!” Sophie’s voice went up an octave.

            “Not until you ask for it in Czech!” Marek taunted.

Jonáš and I looked at each other across the dining table.

He cocked his head to the side, “Do you ever feel like you’re the parent to your own best friends?”

I had to laugh. “Really? YOU feel like a parent? I’m the parent. You’re the cool older brother.”

Sophie and Marek’s sandwich argument continued, with no acknowledgment of anyone else’s existence; the sandwich was all that mattered. Sophie started screaming louder, “If you don’t give me back my sandwich, I’ll cut off your right hand so you’ll have to awkwardly masturbate with your left hand and it won’t be nearly as satisfying!”

“YOU DEMON!” Marek threw the sandwich at Sophie. A look of pure horror crossed his face. He cradled his right hand with his left and held it close. 

Snippet #23

            “Guys, you’ll never guess what some old man said to me on the metro today!” Sophie burst into the room. Judging by how flustered she looked, she most likely ran here as fast as she could to share this trivial piece of information with anyone who would listen.

            “Did he say you could sit in his lap if the car got too crowded?” Jonáš asked, “That’s happened to me before. And it was super weird because he totally had crutches to help him walk. Like, I’m not going to sit on man’s lap when he needs support for his legs. I’d feel like a dipshit person.”

            Sophie looked perplexed as she deciphered Jonáš’s offhand comment.  “No. He said that I had a neck ‘built for pearls’. What does that even mean?”

Snippet #22

“You may be better, but I’m still dying.”

Snippet #21

“If you don’t like wearing it, why do you?” I could tell that this was one of Sophie’s serious questions.

“I wear it because I got in the habit of it. It’s a compromise. My grandmother wears the paranja. I didn’t want to. It makes my family feel more comfortable; it makes life easier for those around me. I wear it because, in Tashkent anyway, I don’t get unwanted attention. I wear it because I feel safe. It’s like home, only wrapped around my head.”

Snippet #20

“There’s different types of strength, Miri. You have the strength to survive. To endure. I have the strength that looks good until tested; it shines and burns out. It’s flashy. I’m the supernova; you’re the candle in the window that never wavers. Both have their place, neither better than the other. But don’t you dare think that you’re weak just because you’re not like me.”

We sat in silence for awhile.

“Actually, if you ask me, I think you’re stronger than me. Supernovas don’t last that long. They’re under pressure and burn bright, but then disappear; candles can last days, months, years. I’m barely strong in moments when I need to be. That’s the flash. But you, despite everything you’ve had to deal with, you still get up every morning and live your life. If that’s not strength, I don’t know what is.”

______________________________________________________

I don't know, this sounds a bit 'off' to me. Does it seem all right?

Snippet #19

“Life is fucking terrible at blowjobs, so just try as hard as you can to not let it suck.”

Czech Movies

      So I went to the movies last night with my roommate Rachel. Now Rachel is the kind of girl who is too loud and says very tourist-y things. She's super nice though. So we're going to see Moonrise Kingdom - really odd movie, but good - at this really sketch movie theatre. It was super nice on the inside though, so it was less scary. But I was the one who had to figure out how the hell to get us there and back, and the movie started at 11. At night. In a part of the city I don't know. So I was basically mentally unable to react to things normally.
     Anyway, so in the movie theatre we're waiting (there was another movie before ours). Finally the other movie ends, and every one comes out. AND ONE OF THE GUYS IN THE MOVIE THEATRE BRINGS OUT HIS IRISH WOLFHOUND. OUT OF THE THEATRE. GUYS, THE DOG SAW THE MOVIE TOO. Is it just me, or is that super bizarre? So I'm standing there in shock, and Rachel is basically screaming and drawing all sorts of attention to her as she's laughing and pointing at the dog.
     It was a good movie though.