The goal is to make them believe I care. I probably should, but altruism has never been my strong suit. It’s not like I’m relieved that he died—I’m not a horrible person. I’m just… not very affected. I wouldn’t even say we had a real relationship. The past eight months have been us swinging together […]
It’s three minutes past seven on a rainy Monday night, and Keaton Montgomery can’t decide on the brand of apples to put in his cart. Growing up, he always thought there were three—red, green, and yellow. His mother used to buy the delicious golden yellows, never a week passing when the fruit basket on the […]
It would’ve been chrome if Juno waited ’til after this final exam to break up with me. I knew it was coming eventually—I don’t have my head completely in the airlock. But she’s got a real knack for timing. We’re in line for routine hormone checks, of all places—the whole class lined up to get […]
“I’m telling you—no one’s gonna die tonight,” the lunatic on the TV says. I’ve seen him before. He stands on the sidewalk outside the bakery on Tuesdays and waves tracts in people’s faces. “This catastrophe that everyone’s hysterical about, it’s just not going to happen. The very notion that there’s a cosmic entity—a God, if […]
After Lana comes home, she goes into the bathroom and shuts the door, leans her forehead against the cool wood, and notices how the shapes of the grain curve in and out of themselves— tiny lines that undulate in small tan and caramel waves. She pushes the small button in the middle of the knob […]
i. I wore black pants, a white button-down, and shiny black dress shoes that pinched my toes. My feet had grown like weeds over the summer, and I hadn’t broken in these new ones yet. They were still a bit squeaky as I paced around the other boys in the dressing room, watching Jamie, the […]
Fifteen hundred people was a lot more than Marv had realized. They milled about in the narrow aisles between the rows of tables, the heat from their bodies mixing with the muggy August air to turn the hotel lobby into a sweltering stew. Marv, sweat plastering his shirt to his back, was beginning to envy […]
Apparently, when you turn sixteen and get your driver’s license, you’re everybody’s errand boy. Never mind that you have twenty geometry problems to finish and it’s nine-thirty at night. Nope. You have to drive to the new Walmart and get some treat bags for your mom. And when you ask why she can’t get the […]
Content warning: Domestic abuse . Sometimes I forget what it feels like to exist. To breathe. To actually be alive. Him. There’s a start to all of this, a middle, an ending, and then a new beginning, and every bit of it has his face, his eyes, his voice, his hands surrounding it, surrounding me. […]
Content warning: Death . The Saddest Clown. It pinches me, that he’s remembered that way. His character’s name was Wag. Audiences came alive whenever Wag appeared. Dad blamed himself. But inside, I can’t help feeling, it was me. * The night of the fall was particularly steamy. Program sales were high, the audience fanned themselves […]
Trigger warnings: climate change, death, and hunting . The worst thing was the empty sky. It was the first detail I noticed when we got off of the transport, Basi yelling orders as if he knew what was going on, his flawless jaw concealed by a breathing mask. Sofia and Eve were the first to […]
i. queer people don’t get happy endings i blame his forearms. thick. sun-kissed. covered with hair. i used to imagine them straining as he caught hold of my wrist. the intent behind his grip was of no consequence. he could have meant to hurt me or draw me in close. either way, i was his. […]