Post-Traumatic

by Chantal V. Johnson

“Competition among women,”

“is a dangerous waste of our time. We should opt out of it entirely.”

When Vivian walked through the city, sometimes she would imagine that she was winding through a zombie apocalypse as one of the sole survivors, speaking into a camera.

Same girl

“If you’re really feeling nostalgic,” Vivian said, “we should watch an old abduction episode of Unsolved Mysteries.”

My kinda friend

Vivian thought of the regular excuses Jane trotted out for her own mother—“It’s how she was raised,” “She thought hitting me was protecting me,” and so

So relatable

“Humor is my favorite defense mechanism.” “That was funny too.” “Well, I’m really scared right now.” He kissed her.

Same

“You changed your hair,” he said. “I did, I did,” she said, touching the ends of her still-straight hair reflexively. Joey tapped his feet on the floor. “It makes you look Caucasian!” he said, looking impressed. Vivian laughed and did a full-on Jim Halpert into the camera.

LOL

“Who are you?” Matthew said, mesmerized. He said it was rare to find a woman both so smart and so sexy. “Usually it’s one or the other.”

Uhhh, fuck you bud

“Yelling is bad for kids,” Vivian snapped back. “You’ve been hanging around white people too much,” Anita said. Vivian spent the rest of the day in her room.

Oh too nostalgic lol

“Medication is the new lobotomy!”

“What other kind of stuff do you want to do to me?” he asked suddenly. Trap you into loving me forever, she thought.

Ew girl

Estrangement in our culture might be worse than death.