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.”