“The Prescribed Burn” (Story 12, Excerpt 2)

The following excerpt is the second part of “The Prescribed Burn”. You can read the first part here.

“That’s gross,” I said. “Did he start to drool?”

“Basically,” said Madsy. “And I could see into the mesh pocket of his backpack. Full of condoms.”

I started to laugh, and I felt my greasy forearms slide over the armrests of my chair. While I laughed, my butt sank into the fabric. I broke the tight weave of plastic fibers, and I fell almost completely through the chair, just above the wooden floor of the deck.

Maybe I had gained so much weight that the chair could no longer hold me. I worried about how mad my parents would be about the broken lounge chair.

Now Madsy was laughing.

“Oh, are you okay?” Madsy asked.

“Wow, how did that happen? Did I really get that fat?”

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“The Prescribed Burn” (Story 12, Excerpt 1)

The following excerpt is the first part of “The Prescribed Burn”. You can read the second part here.

I just needed a break. I wished that everyone and everything would disappear, and I wanted every relationship to unravel itself like yarn I used in the winter, the only time I ever wanted to knit.

I escaped to my parents’ house, if that could be called an escape. Somehow, my bedroom unearthed more emotion than I thought possible. Everything reminded me of something from my past, of things I hadn’t even thought about for a while, like the slumber parties I had with Madsy in high school, all the time I had spent sitting on the floor, painting, and the night I secretly brought Theo to my room.

I woke up in my bed alone, but I wasn’t expecting the loneliness. I thought my parents would be home to distract me, but they left early to attend a garden show somewhere in central Jersey. I called Madsy.

“I’m home,” I said.

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