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Weekly Contest #379
It was six months or so since Missy and I had read “The Telltale Heart” in senior English. But it was The Telltale Calculus that was on my mind that night in the pool. Sixteen hours left to change her mind, or at least to come clean about the calculus. Or both. I still couldn’t make up my mind. Missy, as usual, could read me like a book. "You're thinking about the first time you had me over here, aren't you?" she asked me. “Cannot tell a lie,” I grinned. I was indeed reminiscing about that day in May. Unabashed as ever in the late spring aft...
Weekly Contest #354
One thing about living on the very edge of a tiny Midwestern town: the view. Of course, I’d been more concerned with the view inside my room, where Bridget hadn’t let either of us put on a stitch of clothing all morning. “Don’t you feel a lot less uptight now?” she asked me in the afterglow of our third roll in the sheets, tickling my chest lightly. “Who said I ever was uptight?” I asked. “You didn’t have to say it.” She stood up and stretched. “The way you acted so shy all this time. Sorry, I had you pegged from the very beginning, Andrew....
Weekly Contest #345
I’ve done my fair share of lying: I told my mom I’d gone to my physical for the Army, but really I never even called a recruiter. There was nothing Will didn’t share with his best friend Andrew, whom he’d known since the second grade. Including that bit of news, which he’d included in an email he’d sent on Friday. Two very long days later, Will was still trying to figure out how he’d neglected to consider that his mother probably monitored his emails. But it was too late to kick himself anymore over that. He kept the suitcase hidden under ...
Weekly Contest #338
“Look at those red cheeks! He’s gonna cry!” “Don’t push him, Eric, he will cry and you’ll get detention!” said Mike, who really had once earned a detention for making Jonathan cry in English class. Jonathan was thoroughly used to the abuse Eric and Mike had been dishing out throughout the lunch period. He had, he thought, been doing pretty well at not being in any danger of crying this time. But the mention of “red cheeks” was a game changer. All at once he was transported half a lifetime ago - not so long at age thirteen, even he had to adm...
Weekly Contest #330
CW: Contains themes and/or references to sexual intimacy The sun was probably shining bright over Salt Lake City by then, but we hadn't opened the curtains. As we patted one another dry after our shower, chatting casually more like a pair of old friends than a former couple, I found I really didn't want to open the curtains any time soon. I didn't want to go downstairs for our complimentary breakfast, I didn't want to stuff everything back in our suitcases and do that ritual last comb through the room to make sure we had everything, and I ...
Weekly Contest #316
I almost chickened out when I got to the corner. But Jen never would have forgiven me. At that moment I didn’t care much if Ma and Rick forgave me or not. They were looking plenty happy without me, mingling with some friends I didn’t recognize in the driveway, right on the three-point line Eric and I always imagined for our long-ago basketball games. No sign of their being any worse off for their loss. But Jen would’ve killed me if I got that far and then turned back, and sooner or later I’d have hated myself too. Especially with what she wa...
Weekly Contest #308
None of the kids in Madame Beaulieu’s class could have said which was the bigger surprise: that shy, bookish Danny had asked one of the most popular girls in the school over for a study-date, or that she had accepted. Accept, though, she had. After another F on the latest test while Danny got a hundred, Maggie was already rehearsing her promise to her parents that she was getting help from the best student in the class, even before they got to his house. “Listen, Danny,” she told him, “I hope you don’t let what James and those guys say bug ...
Weekly Contest #307
All the boys in the Triangle Club wore a tiny black triangle pin on their uniform ties. The girls they tapped for the club got a matching one and were directed to wear it on their blazer lapels. Although technically a violation of the Blanton Academy dress code, it was discreet enough to go unnoticed except by those who were looking for it. The day after Kelly was tapped, she was on the lookout for the other lucky girls as she trekked across the grounds towards the Humanities Building. She wasn’t surprised when the first one she crossed path...
Weekly Contest #303
“Tim, you are responsible for getting those letters out to the donors,” ordered Mr. Collins on the morning he left for yet another rubber chicken lunch. “Of course,” Tim said. With a nod to his fellow summer intern, Sally, he said, “We’ll keep after Jason to do it.” “I didn’t say you and Sally,” Mr. Collins snapped. “I said you. Sally’s got her own work to do.” “And of course I’ll do it, Joseph!” Sally batted her eyes and gave every sign of welcoming his playful hand as it tousled her curls. “Those letters are dated yesterday, Tim,” Mr. Coll...
Weekly Contest #293
The only thing more depressing than a European winter’s night is a European winter’s night when you’ve just had your heart slaughtered. But the gray Luxembourg trainyard I knew so well somehow had a touch of hope in it now, as I settled myself for my last ride back to Paris. Love and work and school had all kicked me in the rear end within a few weeks of each other. But I was warm and mostly dry in the crowded, brightly lit train, and I found real enjoyment in my long last look at the rainy January twilight out there. Years later, I’d be ab...
Weekly Contest #290
“I was in a place like this when I learned about you selling information on me, honey,” Laine said. “Still won’t quit on that one, will you?” Dan muttered as he collected his black coffee and settled himself at the table nearest the threshold into the bookstore, and opened his newly purchased paperback. “I know what I heard, honey! The guy said, ‘She didn’t get into Harvard, and her boyfriend likes playing with her breasts!’” She lowered her voice on the last four words, but not nearly enough to avoid being overheard. Half a dozen other pe...
Weekly Contest #287
April 12, 2012 “I can’t believe your mom made you invite Del Poirier!” Jen squealed from her perch on Becky’s bed as she and their friend Maddy watched Becky adorn herself with her mother’s makeup. “You think he’s ever been to a girl’s birthday party before? Or even to a girl’s house? I think he’s probably a fruit.” “Jen!” Maddy protested from the floor, where she’d been perusing Becky’s books. “The word is ‘gay’ and so what if he is? He’s a sweet kid, and a brain, too. He’s always ruining the curve in social studies.” “And in French,” Be...
Weekly Contest #278
Jay was none too happy on the first day of high school when Robbie brought home the pamphlet about the school’s zero-tolerance policy. “Weren’t any of these teachers ever kids themselves?” he said as he read of the draconian punishments for any violence whatsoever. “I don’t see an exemption for self-defense. Surely they told you that was okay?” Robbie shook his head. “Mrs. Provencher, that’s my English teacher by the way, she said if you get attacked, just let someone tell a teacher. You won’t get in any trouble, and the attacker will get f...
Weekly Contest #273
“The Greyhound station was deep in the worst neighborhood in town, but aren’t they all?” I recited as Jeff poured the wine into each of our coffee mugs, the closest thing to a wine glass we had in our room. “I didn’t care. My dad’s long-discarded Chevy wasn’t going to attract any thieves, that I knew.” “Not another story about some scumbag,” Jeff interrupted. “Write what you know,” I admonished him, and I went on. “I parked around the corner on Lake Avenue, and walked into the station just in time to see Steve getting off the bus from Bost...
Weekly Contest #265
People often tell me I sound bitter when I don’t mean to. For that reason, I’ll start by saying the move did me a world of good. “The move” – that’s what we always called it inside the family. I was fifteen and fresh off an awful freshman year at high school in my old hometown, rife with bullying – some of it from a teacher – and underperforming on my part. Here’s what you need to know about my hometown: it was a down-at-the-heels New England milltown, full of broken families and kids who saw no future except maybe the army, and adults in d...
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