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June 1 - June 10, 2025
gauzy
I’d really gotten the drop on them
Did that boy hurt you?” I snapped my head up. ”No. I mean, not like, physically.” Dad’s shoulders relaxed at my confirmation that Matt only hurt me emotionally. Which was a messed-up realization.
Dad closed his eyes and slow-nodded. “I told you the girls shouldn’t date until they’re thirty.”
Keurig.
New year’s resolutions were for suckers. I had life plans in stages—daily, semester, yearly, long term, epic long term.
1. Find a best friend 2. Get invited to a sleepover 3. Be part of a known clique 4. Share clothes with bestie 5. First kiss 6. Boyfriend 7. Homecoming dance date 8. Prom It all seemed so simple then. I would acclimate myself socially through rigorous planning and strategy.
I wonder if his old friends knew. They never liked me.
softball,
I spent my free time reading my parents’ Terry Pratchett novels and taking online courses on topics that interested me.
I would try to make friends, but eventually get branded a dork and ignored. My very existence repelled sleepover invitations. I defaulted to loner status. Every time.
Why not study what it took to be popular? Add those items to a list, make a plan, and have the life I wanted.
off-list.
family room
sleuthing,
The marquee strobed Now Hiring like a seedy invitation.
I couldn’t ask for a job looking like a drenched cat.
lobby. A little creative bending beneath the automated hand dryer and a wad of paper towels later and I was good to go. Damp to go.
crony
As soon as the front doors closed behind me, I breathed again. No more rain and I had a job. A toilet scrubber, yes, but a toilet scrubber who’d be paid.
to fess up
“I’m sorry I was such a good girlfriend. I was so good, I tricked you into believing you had to do absolutely nothing to gain my devotion. You could have spat on me, and I’d wipe it from my face and tell you how great you were at spitting.”
what mature people do. They call each other out when they’ve done wrong. They listen to each other. And then they change.”
“Never drive with a stolen robot in your trunk to a lake house where your jilted ex shows up, gets kicked out, and steals the robot in an underhanded jealousy attack.”
jilted?”
going off book
“I’m sorry I pushed you away.” He squeezed my hand. ”You don’t have to end things to give each other breathing room.”
“You are ridiculous. Never change.”
I slid closer, thankful for the shade overhead. I could stay here all day.
Just us, here, right now. Us, who we were now and whoever we wanted to be.
