Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius the Great, #1)

by Adib Khorram

I was categorically opposed to plastic sample cups. Everything tasted gross out of plastic, all chemical-y and bland. It was deeply disgusting.

Not an incorrect assessment 🤪

Technically, I was also supposed to produce a Corporate Mandated Smile, but I was not a miracle worker.

The sociopolitical landscape of Chapel Hill High School was treacherous enough without giving people an excuse to pick on you. Javaneh Esfahani was a lioness.

As if salad would counteract the weight gain from my meds. As if lack of discipline was the root of all my problems. As if all the worry about my weight didn’t make me feel worse than I already did.

Despite being best friends, Chip and Trent battled like Emotionally Compromised Vulcans when they were on opposing teams.

Kinda funny 😂

I guess it actually did bother me. Just a little bit.

“He’s only doing it because he can tell he’s getting to you.” I wondered if that’s why Dad treated me the way he did. Because he could tell he was getting to me.

I had his blood in me. His and Mamou’s. They weren’t strangers. But I was about to meet them for the first time. My chest started to clench up.

Here’s the thing: No one should have to wake up at three o’clock in the morning.

love was an opportunity, not a burden.

no matter the story she told, the one I told myself, the one I understood deep down, was this: Stephen Kellner didn’t want to tell me stories anymore.

She really did want something to drink, but she didn’t know how to go about asking.

I liked that I could be silent with Sohrab. That’s how I knew we really were going to be friends.

Hossein and Ali-Reza walked ahead of us, fingers intertwined behind their heads in what Coach Fortes liked to call Surrender Cobra.

😂😂🐍

I had so much anger turned inward, I could have powered a warp core.

“I was hurting. And you were there. And I knew how to make you hurt as bad as me.”