Published pieces

It was the type of small town that even Greyhound avoids. Where men  riding 10 speeds are not doing well. Where spring welcomes not only wild  Rose of Sharon out of hibernation but also meth heads; stumbling out of  their apartments one after the other, like the Seven Dwarfs, forging  ahead hunchbacked and wild, making their way somewhere, strange and  purposeless.

I woke up on the couch in Frankie’s basement in complete terror that  something bad happened to her. She was on house arrest at her parents  house but we had been up until dawn getting trashed with her neighbours  after meeting them for the first time. When I left she said she was  going to “stick around” and I worried she was passed out on their lawn.  If her mom found her missing, chaos would ensue. I had to sneak into the  neighbour’s yard and get her back. It was a rescue mission and I was to  be the hero.

We froze when we saw him. Glasses hovered over the edge of his nose,  defying gravity by the sheer force of his anger. We were eleven or twelve, that age when you’re old enough to start shit  but young enough to still get grounded. Just moments earlier Micky and I  had raced off the school bus and up the driveway of my parent’s red  brick bungalow with the world at our fingertips. Now anything  questionable I’d ever done went racing through my mind.

I peeked through wicker blinds half expecting to see last night’s  Tinder date hiding near my car. It had been a night of debauchery,  carnal, blood and tequila. I should have left after I came the third  time.   I limped around the bedroom in search of my phone. I was still getting  acquainted with my four wall arrangement, the latest in a slew of room  rentals.

“Watch my beer, if you drink it I’ll punch you in the face.”  I sat on the stoop of an August pool party, left arm sweating  inside a black sling and magic mushrooms digesting in my stomach. My red  hair was frizzy from humidity, legs scabbed from the mosquito bites I  could never stop itching. Faces radiated above me but when I looked at  the pool, the same faces were swimming. Doubles. I accepted neither, who  cared?