Giving Shit

Becki could not believe her eyes, to see Edward Julian Watson standing in front of her, when she looked up from keeping the books. Not ten minutes after meeting up with him. And that other woman. Julia.
He rang the little silver bell, anyway.
"May I help you?" she asked and the fact she did not want to was very apparent on her face.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Her eyes went to the books, to conceal her further disbelief. "Quit asking stupid questions," she replied.
"Fine," he stated, "How are you?"
And she did not care about her eyes any longer. She looked at him and said, "Please, quit asking stupid questions."
Edward Julian Watson told her fine again, as he turned to walk away. "Since we are still on for six tonight, I will see you later."
Becki's mouth opened, but nothing came out, and Edward Julian Watson made it out the front doors of the bookstore, before she could close it again.

Edward Julian Watson pulled quietly into her driveway and cut the engine to the Datsun.
Becki said nothing. She listened to the engine tick; as it cooled down.
"Can I come up?" he asked, in his happy voice.
And Becki replied, "I do not think so." But when she reached for the door handle, the car suddenly came back to life.
"Let's go for a drive then," Edward Julian Watson said, still just as happy.
"Fine." Becki slouched back into her seat and folded her arms across her chest. She stared out the window, as Edward Julian Watson drove down the empty, midnight streets, aimlessly.
"I am going to call your mother tomorrow," Becki spoke finally, but did not turn to look at him.
And Edward Julian Watson voice was incredulous. Alarmed. "What for?"
And Becki finally smiled.

Punks-Something You Forgot

Minnie was 14. She liked wearing bright red lipstick and getting high. It was two o'clock in the morning and she was still up, even though it was a Wednesday night and there would be school in the morning. She had already decided she would not go.
It was getting too hard to go.
She could not stand the stares and the hate and the whispers. She knew the teachers were offended by the sight of her. And keeping her head down had only gotten her tripped.
And spit on by fucking Melissa Walker.
Laying on her bed, Minnie pounded the thin mattress with her fists. She was angry.
She was angry most of all with Tommy because he had not shown-up that night. He had not met her at the arcade and so she had smoked the whole gram of pot to herself, in her basement bedroom.
Even though he had paid for it.
It was not like her mother noticed a damn thing anymore. Locked in the spare bedroom, with her over-the-counter sleeping pills. The ones she sent Minnie to get every other day.
"Get me three boxes. The purple boxes." Nothing more then whispered moans from the darkened room.
Fuck. Sometimes the alarm clock would go off for hours, before her mother snapped out of whatever those fucking yellow pills really did to her.
...And where the fuck was Tommy? Tommy always showed-up to be with her. Tommy loved her...

And of course Tommy showed-up; he knocked at her window and instead of running to open the side door to let him in, she just opened the window. And then she felt bad for not rushing to him.
Tommy's right eye was swollen shut and there was brown blood on his white shirt.
She took it off him, as soon as she had him standing next to her bed and then he collapsed at her feet. He sobbed. "Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard?"
She felt his ragged fingernails scrape up at the skin on her legs and her hands dropped the ruined shirt and went into his hair.
And she cried because he did. Only quieter.