Giving Shit

Edward Julian Watson loved Sunshine Travel. That was the name he had choosen for his new shop. He loved to say the name out loud. He would say it over and over again to would-be vacationers. And would he say it to himself in the mirror all the time.
There was really no one else to talk to. So it is a very good thing Edward Julian Watson loved his business.

It was evening on Friday and Amy was not caring for much. When she paid for her things at the pharmacy checkout, a little red sign told her the candy bars were on sale. Two for a dollar.
So, she figured she could short the cable bill five dollars that month and she bought herself some right away.
She sat down on the bench, just outside the store. She ate a Snickers bar first.

"That's a lot of candy bars," Edward Julian Watson said out loud, as he walked out the pharmacy doors, but more to himself about his own bag of goodies.
Amy thought otherwise.
"Do you want one?" she offered.
And later he asked her, as they fell into her bed, "Do you have AIDS?"
And she laughed and replied, "No, baby, just candy."

Edward Julian Watson was speaking to Becki by 11 o'clock that night. A common occurrence.
And Edward Julian Watson told Becki he would be going on vacation this coming weekend.
Of course, Becki wanted to know where. She asked him.
"I am going camping."
And Becki inquired, if it would be with Bob and Edward Julian Watson affirmed the negative.
And he blurted, "With Amy."
Becki was apparently abrupt, when she changed the subject. "And how is Orange today?"
And Edward Julian Watson watched Orange sitting and glaring at him, from the other end of the couch; edge of arm, for a good thirty seconds.
"I am just joking, Becki," he said, "You're coming to Chicago this weekend."
Becki laughed, when she answered him. "Is that so, Edward?"
"It's really about time," he replied.

Suzy.

Suzy walked down the hallways, books and files clutched firmly against her chest. She caught herself clenching her teeth. She hadn’t managed much sleep the previous night. She wondered how Tommy’s exam went. She wondered if he had went through her binder. She wondered if he had looked at chapter 4. She wondered if he had looked at her handwritten notes, especially the ones written below the algebraic formulae table.

“Fuck,” she thought, as she recalled for the thousandth time the intricate heart-crossed figures with Tommy’s and Suzy’s names in it...

~by vinny~


Suzy felt like an idiot...

But Suzy was no idiot. Tommy knew that.
For a fact.
He knew damn well he had passed his test and it was only because of her. He even admitted it right on his test. He answered the essay question with their dialogue.
Suzy was the smartest girl Tommy had ever known.
He had seen the pretty little hearts and his name always written in bold, with her black pen.
And Tommy loved Suzy too.
He sat on his bed and sketched her hearts, then wove flowers of skeletons through the curves. He drew a dagger underneath. He liked his drawing.
He thought it would make a cool tattoo.

And Suzy- no, no. Suzy was no idiot.
She met Jon McDermott, after class, at the abandoned factory down by the tracks. Sun shone through the green glass, and he just stood there up against the wall.
She got on her knees and undid his pants herself.
Jon McDermott's daddy was a doctor.
Jon McDermott paid 50 bucks a pop.

"You're really smart," Tommy said to her, when he found her by her locker the next day. "All I can do is really draw."
He handed her his drawing and she blushed because of the hearts.
"It'd make a real cool tattoo," Tommy told her. "You want to hang out for a bit after school?"
And Suzy agreed, but was not even sure if she had said yes or only nodded her head.
Tommy asked her where she would like to meet after class, with a shrug and a 'Anywhere.'
And feeling like an idiot again; Suzy couldn't even stop herself, she asked, "How about we meet down at the old factory?"

Look What You've Done

Minnie was 14. She liked wearing bright red lipstick and getting high. And man, she wished she had a joint right then. But she had rolled up all the roaches for Tommy earlier.
Minnie could feel her heart starting to race again, she felt like she was going to puke again. She raised her hand to cover her mouth. But it smelled of river water and rotting wet leaves.
She could not stand the smell of the summertime creek stained to her hands.
And Minnie puked again.
And Minnie swallowed it again.
Her eyes burned worse than her throat. She did not let a drop out of anything out.
What if they could use her vomit to figure out she was there? Through DNA or something? That thought would rise up much higher in her throat and it was strong enough to make her swallow.
But not strong enough to make her leave the park.
She knew a joint would give her the courage.
She just walked in circles.
Until she saw him.
He was there. Sitting with his head propped up against the seat of a bench and sleeping; a large bottle of vodka stuck between his legs
"Tommy, you gotta get up." She bent down to speak loudly in his ear, when she reached him.
And Tommy opened his eyes.
"You gotta go home." Minnie tugged on his shirt. "Come on."
And Tommy smiled at her and he pulled her over close to him, so her head was on his chest and he said, "In a minute, Minnie...in a minute."
And her clothes were so wet and she was so cold, and he was sleepy warmth, so she stayed for a minute.
"I love you, Minnie. I promise." He muttered; hugging her closer.
“You gotta go back home then, Tommy.”
“I’ll go, if you go,” he said.
So she grabbed the bottle out from between his legs and said, “I am taking this with me” and she brought the half empty bottle up to her mouth and she closed her eyes. Liquid white tore down the back of her throat.
Minnie did not kiss Tommy good-bye. Instead she warned, “You better leave”, and then she turned and walked away.
And Minnie did not look back.
When it started to rain, it did not make her feel clean. She stopped and tried throwing her head back and stretching out her arms, but she knew she did not have the right to.
She knew she could forget every minute of the night.
Even Tommy telling her he loved her. Her mother had warned her a long time ago, to never believe a drunken man saying that shit.
So instead, she just kept on walking home and thinking about the DNA that might collect in pools of water.
She drank the other half of the bottle.
And when Minnie got home, she washed it carefully with warm water and dried it with a dish towel, placing it under the sink with Daddy’s collection of empties.