THE AGONY OF UNMADE DECISIONS ,
a sentence starter prompts list comprised of quotes from the novel if we were villains by m.l. rio. please be advised that this list may involve topics including, but not limited to, murder, death, and violence. change verbiage as needed.
why are you here? you should know by now i’m not going to tell you anything.
seems safer to let sleeping dogs lie.
it must eat you alive, not knowing. not knowing who, not knowing how, not knowing why.
you’ve kept your secrets all this time. it would drive anyone else crazy. why do it?
want to come out for a smoke? might help you relax.
your time will come to be the tragic hero.
let’s go skinny-dipping! i haven’t been swimming all summer.
seems like just yesterday my dad was shouting at me for throwing my life away.
you can’t do good work if you’re hiding, so we’re going to get all of the ugliness out in the open.
if you haven’t made any enemies in life, you’ve been living too safely.
you make a surprisingly convincing villain.
i know what you’re doing. you’re baiting me.
i don’t know about you, but i want to get cleaned up and go to bed and pretend this didn’t happen for like at least eight hours.
i think we were all fucked up from the start.
you promised me you wouldn’t say a word, so don’t.
i’m sorry, what the fuck just happened?
you know, people aren’t going to put up with your bullshit for much longer.
you’re probably the only person he’d listen to.
where’ve you been all night?
i was making the rounds for a while, but i got overwhelmed and snuck upstairs to do some reading.
i’m done with this fucking party, with all of them down there. what do you want?
why don’t you just tell me what happened? no performance. no poetics.
we can’t just stand around arguing about how it happened, we have to do something.
look, i know you have a pathological need to play the hero, but right now you need to stop and ask yourself if that’s really what’s best for everyone.
someone’s dead and you don’t know where you were?
before last night, everything was fine.
i care about you, and what might happen if you carry on like this.
he wasn’t an easy person to like, but he was an easy person to love.
what do you do? ignore your grief, or indulge in it?
maybe every day we let grief in, we’ll also let a little bit of it out, and eventually we’ll be able to breathe again.
i’m not going to kick you out of your own bed.
it doesn’t add up. we’re missing something.
you look like you might need someone to carry you.
i’m going to bed unless you’ve got something to say.
i’ve had enough of your sexual misadventures for one year, thanks.
it’s fucking freesing and i’m not leaving you out here alone.
when did we become such terrible people?
why don’t we get a drink or something? just us. i can’t think straight with everyone watching like we’re a reality show.
i just–maybe it’s because you’re you, and i mean, look at you–but i don’t understand. why me? i’m nobody.
you know, everyone calls you ‘nice,’ but that’s not the word. you’re good. you’re so good you have no idea how good you are.
we carry on as usual, or they’re going to want to ask all kinds of questions we don’t want to answer.
are you going to cold-shoulder me all night?
what’s gotten into you? you don’t sound like yourself.
you’re smarter than this.
i’m not keeping any more secrets for you.
you can justify anything if you do it poetically enough.
you’re just going to leave me?
i think hell may have frozen over.
when you enter the theatre, there are three things you must leave at the door: dignity, modesty, and personal space.
anything can feel like punishment if you’re taught poorly.
you can’t quantify humanity. you can’t measure it–not the way you mean to. people are passionate and flawed and fallible. they make mistakes. their memories fade. their eyes deceive them.
i want so badly to be so mad at you that i could kill you, but i can’t, so i’m mad at myself instead. do you even understand how unfair that is?
i don’t know what’s wrong with me. i want to hurt the whole world.
why don’t you sit, and i’ll pour tea?
he was my friend—much more than that, truthfully—and that was enough. i didn’t need to know why.
can i help? i still–i want to help.
let me put myself back together and then i’ll come find you.
it’s like i look at you and suddenly the sonnets make sense.
tell me you didn’t do it.
i never wanted you to look at me the way you’re looking at me right now.
we have to go back and act like nothing’s wrong. we’ve got to get through tonight, and then we’ll worry about it. all right?
you know, it’s not too late if there’s another version of the truth you want to tell me.
will you rest easier with one less mystery on your mind?
you were real to me. sometimes i thought you were the only real thing.
