Confrontations I
It takes a second to understand the kid at the door. Ally grunts and clears her throat. “I remember you,” she says. You look different. You got a tan.”
She slurs her words like a drunk. She remembers the last time she drank, she thinks it was at the block party and she hasn’t had even a cigarette (Don threw out all of the good drugs in the house and left only herbal tea and Aspirin). And now she paces at night. She pays attention to the scar above the boy’s lip and it becomes a kind of focus. “How’d you get that mark on your face?” She asks. Why she dislikes him more because of the thin, slightly jagged line she isn’t sure.
“I don’t know,” he says. But Ally’s anger has an appetite and his fissure tells many things while he stands there waiting she imagines for news about Emily.
“That happened when you were young?” She says. But she isn’t really interested in his answer. And he asks, “Has there been any change?”
The more she thinks about it, the more convinced she is that this boy has caused the misery in her life and is the one responsible for what happened to Emily and why she ran away. This boy with his evil face is to blame.
“Emily doesn’t know I kicked her out, she didn’t hear what I said at the party,” Ally says. She feels a strange need to confess and she’d like to talk about the other things that happened that night too. But her mouth is dry and she needs a drink of something strong before she can speak again. And then Thom passes by on his way to the kitchen and this she supposes is a good thing, “Hi Mickey,” he says. She is not so far gone, and then she feels this weird hope this is all a nightmare for a reason and she only has to wake up to right things. But it is the name, “Mickey,” that makes her pause.
“You’re that kid, the one that asked Emily to the prom?”
And when he raises his eyes to meet hers, she can almost see the kid he once was. And she gets that Emily sees things but he wasn’t something she made up.
She slurs her words like a drunk. She remembers the last time she drank, she thinks it was at the block party and she hasn’t had even a cigarette (Don threw out all of the good drugs in the house and left only herbal tea and Aspirin). And now she paces at night. She pays attention to the scar above the boy’s lip and it becomes a kind of focus. “How’d you get that mark on your face?” She asks. Why she dislikes him more because of the thin, slightly jagged line she isn’t sure.
“I don’t know,” he says. But Ally’s anger has an appetite and his fissure tells many things while he stands there waiting she imagines for news about Emily.
“That happened when you were young?” She says. But she isn’t really interested in his answer. And he asks, “Has there been any change?”
The more she thinks about it, the more convinced she is that this boy has caused the misery in her life and is the one responsible for what happened to Emily and why she ran away. This boy with his evil face is to blame.
“Emily doesn’t know I kicked her out, she didn’t hear what I said at the party,” Ally says. She feels a strange need to confess and she’d like to talk about the other things that happened that night too. But her mouth is dry and she needs a drink of something strong before she can speak again. And then Thom passes by on his way to the kitchen and this she supposes is a good thing, “Hi Mickey,” he says. She is not so far gone, and then she feels this weird hope this is all a nightmare for a reason and she only has to wake up to right things. But it is the name, “Mickey,” that makes her pause.
“You’re that kid, the one that asked Emily to the prom?”
And when he raises his eyes to meet hers, she can almost see the kid he once was. And she gets that Emily sees things but he wasn’t something she made up.
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