Karthik

“Small talk had been replaced by a general reminiscence that people called “remember when.” “Remember when there was electricity?” “Remember when we could crap indoors?” “Remember when mutants didn’t roam the land trying to eat your face off?”
― Benjamin Wallace, Knights of the Apocalypse

“Arthur reaches over to take them. As he does, his thumb brushes my thumb, and it’s so cold, this sudden shock of cold. The flowers get dropped. They make a slight, swishy sound as they hit the floor.

“Shit,” I say, my voice sounding really loud in my ears.

And then he kisses me.

It’s—

I don’t know.

I don’t know, I don’t know.

It’s my brain turning off, it’s nothing. It’s a feeling. It’s a mouth on mine, and fuck it. Fuck my whole goddamn life, man. Just fuck it. I don’t move away like I should, but neither does he. He puts one of his hands on my face.

Then the bells on the front door ring. We break apart and I open my eyes.

And there’s Arthur looking back at me.”
― Hannah Johnson, Know Not Why

“Probably for every man there is at least one city that sooner or later turns into a girl. How well or how badly the man actually knew the girl doesn’t necessarily affect the transformation. She was there, and she was the whole city, and that’s that.”
― J.D. Salinger, A Girl I Knew