Crystal

“Beck, listen to me. Benji is an asshole. Okay?"

I want to scream YES but I sit. Still. Benji.

"Listen, Beck," Chana rails on. "Some guys are assholes and you have to accept that. You can buy him all the books in the world and he's still gonna be Benji. He'll never be Benjamin or, God forbid, Ben because he doesn't have to, because he's a permanent man-baby, okay? He and his club soda can fuck off and so can his stupid ass name. I mean seriously, Benji? Is he kidding? And the way he says it. Like it's Asian or French. Ben Geeee. Dude, just fuck off."

Lynn sigh. "I never thought about it that much. Benji. Ben Gee. Gee, Ben."

There's a little laughter now and I am learning things about Benji. I don't like it but I have to accept it. Benji is real and I get another vodka soda. Benji.”
― Caroline Kepnes, You

“I knew what she was, and it made no difference at all. She was hard, as ruthless as she was beautiful, as brittle as bone china.”
― Clifton Adams

“There were many beautiful vipers in those days and she was one of them. ("Eveline's Visitant")”
― Mary Elizabeth Braddon, The Gentlewomen of Evil: An Anthology of Rare Supernatural Stories from the Pens of Victorian Ladies

“Beside her, her husband could only splutter, and he stopped even that when she half turned to flash him a smile - the instinctive, brilliant smile of a woman who knows what feeble creatures men can be. You couldn't learn to smile like that. It was something a woman either knew the minute she was born, or never knew at all. ("I'm Dangerous Tonight")”
― Cornell Woolrich, The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich