The Girls Are All So Nice Here

“People thought girls' bodies were our deadliest weapons. They had no idea about the mountains our imaginations could move.”

“She talked about guys like they were toys. But her favorite playthings were the girls.”

“Girls compete against each other, like the sunflowers my mom tried to plant in her garden, the ones that never grew. She planted them too close together and they all vied for the same sun, choked green stems and sulking yellow faces. Flora was wilting, and I was about to be in bloom.”

“Maybe that was why most of the girls I knew were miserable. We prioritized everyone else’s happiness over our own.”

“(...) people don’t envy the girls who are the smartest and prettiest. They envy the ones who are smart and pretty without trying.”

“To me, being nice was as naïve as being trustworthy, which had gotten me nowhere.”

“There was a danger in being too soft in a world that required a protective coating.”

“Maybe that’s why I hated her—not because she had who I wanted but because she had what I wanted, qualities I could never embody when I tried. Because she was nice, and that was its own power.”

“She thought good things happened to good people. I know that girls are exempt from this logic. Good alone gets us nowhere.”

“Being wanted is what sets some of us apart from the rest. The world makes it goddamn clear that no matter how much a woman does, she’s nothing if she’s not also some man’s beautiful.”

“People told us that comparison was the thief of joy. But the real culprit was competition.”

“The girls were my new language to study, the campus my personal geography project.”

“Billie, a hopeless romantic, even after she stood up at our wedding, saying she knew from the first time she met Adrian that we’d end up together. I don’t know if it’s disgusting or impressive that girls can do that for each other. That we can achieve that level of deceit in the name of sisterhood.”

“She’s the type of woman who insists that we have to empower other women, only to peel them apart and chop them up.”

“The real power didn’t come from being wanted. It came from not wanting anything back.”

“We studied them, then peeled them like overripe fruit in marathon gossip sessions to lessen the sting of not being invited to their parties.”

“How my grandma wrote me letters asking all about college. I’d write lies back, telling her classes were interesting and the weather was great and of course I’d made some friends, the girls are all so nice here.”

“I kept grinding beef and maggots of rice between my molars, because that was preferable to actually speaking.”

“Sully and I had successfully dismantled a girl, stripped her down to bits and pieces.”

“I didn't consider how dangerous it was that our existence was founded on her well-cloaked fear. That there wasn't anything to lose until she was afraid of losing me.”

“The real power didn’t come from being wanted. It came from not wanting anything back. It came from not wanting anything, period.”

“When I did pick out a king, the crown was too heavy for his head.”

“In a way, I’m just getting started.”

“She taught us to contain our emotions until we were in an appropriate place to let them out, as if emotions were caged animals and we were the zookeepers.”

“My first thought: We've gone too far.My second thought: We could go further”

“Every compliment he had doled out detonated in my brain. He never meant any of them.”

“But this is Sully’s power—not necessarily making people believe her, but leading them to doubt themselves.”

“She talked about guys like they were toys.But her favorite playthings were the girls.”

“Flora and I were different. She thought good things happened to good people. I know that girls are exempt from that logic. Good alone gets us nowhere.”

“It becomes even more interesting when you take away your hero’s morals, along with what he loves. Which, generally, manifests as a person. The love interest.”