Quicksand

by Malin Persson Giolito

Mom had cried off all her makeup and hadn’t fixed it afterward. The magnitude of that. The abyss it hinted at.

People aren’t interested in what others say or think, what they have gone through, what conclusions they have drawn. People are interested in hearing only what they think they already know.

(“Calm down, Maja. What are you getting worked up for?”) All guys are like that once you’ve slept with them. All girls know it.

Girls are never supposed to laugh at their own jokes. They are never supposed to talk too fast or, worse, too loudly. A girl who talks too loudly about something she’s worked out on her own might as well start practicing public urination and exposing her tits outside Parliament. PMS-y, teenage female hormones.

Things aren’t more real just because they’re ugly.