On our first day back from Summer Break, my best friend Jimmy fell out of his chair clutching his knee, screaming. I laughed, believing this to be an out-of-place practical joke I was usually in on. Jimmy kept saying his… Continue Reading
It started with theater. Abby sang a solo, and when she went back and watched the video, she didn’t recognize herself. She thought that it just proved how good her acting was, how she was buried in her character, but… Continue Reading
On a cold, snowy day in January, as an old song played on the radio, Joe, whose birthday was in September, had more trouble than usual getting ready for school. “Eat your breakfast, son,” his father said. “Today is, what,… Continue Reading
Fortunately and unfortunately, no two days are the same. “I’ll be damned if I let them get the best of me, today! Not me, not today!” I say to myself. The morning bell screams through the sound system. Within minutes,… Continue Reading
He loves me. I study the petal held between my fingertips with interest, amused that something so fragile could determine my heart’s fate. I drop it to float down and land on the pavement where many discarded petals lay scattered… Continue Reading
The sports car came to a stop in front of my house, tires screeching. Joel angrily leapt out and dashed across the grass toward the front door where I stood. “Come on in,” I called out confidently. “My parents aren’t… Continue Reading
Lunchtime sucked when your best friend was at home sick. Sure, I could hang out with those I labeled ‘school friends,’ but then I’d be the kid who didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the group. As a… Continue Reading
It happened one night on the shore of Lake Michigan, hot, unexpected, two bodies writhing in the reeds. We had spread Remmy’s football letter jacket over the damp sand and flung our shirts onto a mulberry tree, exposing ourselves to… Continue Reading
In my dreams, I’m Romeo, Casanova… Lothario, even. I swirl into a room and the girls swoon, their eyes bright as icicles snapped from the eaves of their flash-frozen hearts. My glance did the freezing, but my touch warms them;… Continue Reading
He still sang Verdi in the shower. She listened and planned to leave him. Twenty years ago, when she was seventeen and smitten, she’d considered his singing romantic: her elegant, cultured calculus teacher serenading her while he soaped his graying… Continue Reading