“I narrow my eyes at him. ‘Don’t try to take me on with sarcasm. I am the queen of it. I’ve studied it, perfected it. I come from a land where we own sarcasm and the use of it. There is nothing you can teach me about sarcasm.’
‘OK,’ he says, grinning up at me, ‘Professor Emeritus Sarcastus. You can own the sarcasm. What I meant was you might learn how to change the chain on a bike, for example.”
“Also I kind of want to see what he looks like, because, frankly, his back is begging the question – what the hell does his front look like?”
“I can’t think about anything but kissing you… about being with you…’ He shrugs. ‘There, I said it. Need me to say it one more time?’
‘No, I got it,’ I say in a weak voice.”
“Well good, I think, maybe he’s thinking that he’s being a total tool and reassessing the whole idea. Maybe he’s going to figure out that going to jail would be a dumb idea. And that kissing me would be a not so dumb idea. Goddamn all men. Goddamn them. They all have shit for brains. I think about what I’m going to tell Megan and then remember that I am sworn to secrecy. I will never betray Jesse’s confidence even if I think he’s being a total idiot with shit for brains.”
“But at least he thinks I have a boyfriend, I tell myself. It could be worse. If he thought I was interested in him for real then I would have to dig a hole and bury myself in it because the smug would be too much to bear.
I reach automatically for my computer and open it up. I need some music to drown my shame in. Some people have tequila to send them into catatonic oblivion, I have music.”
“The music cuts out and suddenly my breathing sounds really loud. It also seems to amplify his whole nakedness.
I stare at him. Actually I try not to stare at him but it’s kind of hard not to. I mean, he’s standing there topless in front of me and his stomach looks like it just walked out of an Abercrombie catalogue. Sweat has darkened the waistband of his jeans. He’s holding a spanner in one hand, the tyre in the other.”
“Why does he have to be so goddamn good-looking? And such a dickhead? What is with him?”
“And finally it is Thursday and the day of my guitar lesson. I jump out of bed as though it’s Christmas morning and I am six years old and a child of the Brangelina. I am in front of the mirror fixing my make up when Brodie waltzes in and plonks herself on my bed.
‘Why do you look pretty?’ she asks.”
“You Should take people as they are. Stop labeling them. You should get to know people before you start judging them. Get to know me before you
decide whether you like me or not.”
“I glance at the book he’s holding. It is American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. There is a deep, dark irony to this and I wonder if he realises it or not. I want to ask him why he’s bought it but what if he’s bought it as a text book?”
“because I got distracted Googling for information on the nanny murder (a good journalist always checks her facts, particularly when the primary source is Sophie, a girl who spouts gossip like she’s auditioning to become the next Perez Hilton). It turns out however that Sophie was correct on all points about the murder, which isn’t that comforting.”
“He looks a bit like Robert Pattinson—if you genetically spliced him with Buzz Lightyear. He has dark, quiffy hair and wide-spaced eyes, though his skin is tanned as opposed to diamond sparkly white. He has a very square jaw with a dimple in the center of his chin but alas no jet
65
THE SOUND
SARAH ALDERSON
pack. I note that his eyebrow is cocked and the smile on his face is half sneer, half smirk as if he’s laughing at Eliza but she doesn’t seem to realize.
I shake my head. I’m making a lot of assumptions here and the only two that I can safely claim are true are the ones about him being neither a vampire nor a space ranger.”
“No, thanks,' I say. Tequila and i have a bad history. We're no longer on speaking terms. In fact tequila is the reason I'm now not much of a drinker.”
“I do think, half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him.”
“He bent down burying his face in my neck. I reached back to grab onto the iron bars behind me to hold myself up. My jacket slipped off my shoulders. I was pretty sure I was on fire and at that moment I would have sworn that bursting into flame was a glorious way to go.”
“Vsak medsebojni odnos je del stalne učne dinamike. Ko vplivate drug na drugega, je del te dinamike iluzija. Zaradi te iluzije lahko vsaka duša dojame,kaj mora razumeti, da se bo zdravila. Kot predstava v živo predstavlja položaje, ki so potrebni, da bodo postali celoviti tisti vidiki vaše duše, ki potrebujejo zdravljenje. Z iluzijo se učimo- Pripada osebnosti. Iluzijo boste zapustili, ko boste umrli, ko se boste vrnili domov. Vendar lahko osebnost, ki živi v ljubezni in Luči, ki gleda skozi oči svoje duše, če govorimo metaforično, gleda iluzijo, ne da bi jo hkrati potegnilo vanjo. To je osebnost, ki dopusti, da se avtentična moč izrazi. Iluzija je izjemno tesno povezana s potrebami vsake duše. Vsak položaj je vedno namenjen vsaki osebi, ki jo zadeva. Ne morete naleteti ne in tudi ne boste naleteli- niti za hip ne- na nobeno okoliščino, ki ne bi bila neposredno in takoj namenjena potrebi vaše duše, da se zdravi in dosega celovitost. Iluzijo za vsako dušo ustvarjajo njeni nameni. Zato v iluziji vedno mrgoli najustreznejših izkušenj, s katerimi lahko zdravite svojo dušo. Iluzija je prilagodljiva. To pomeni, da posamezne duše, ki so sodelovale pri nastanku iluzij , nimajo svoje neodvisnosti pri tem, kar je v iluziji ustvarjenega skupaj. Pomeni, da ni zaznave, ki se je ne da pozdraviti, kot tudi ni namena, ki se ga ne da spremeniti ali zamenjati z drugim. Bistvo duhovne psihologije je razumevanje, kako iluzija nastane, kako deluje, razumevanje dinamike, ki leži za njo in vloge, ki jo igra pri evoluciji duše.”
“Something tells me you might soon be changin’ your tune about that iron-bender. He ain’t all he seems. Trust me, darlin’. You can do better.”
“To lose everything is not the worst can happen."
"It's starting again, from nothing, with nothing," Otah said.
"Is exactly this," Maj agreed, then a moment later. "Starting again, and doing better.”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.