"Ah!", I yelled. I handed the guitar back to my friend and tried to find the source of my pain. I looked at my arm and beyond my drunken haze I realized that I had ashed my cigarette on my own arm. I brushed the ash away and took the guitar back.
"Yeah, I'll play it", I said. They had asked me to play 'Roll Another Joint' by Tom Petty.
* * *
I sat in the living room massaging my burn as my dad handed me a plate of sausage and eggs. "Woah, hey, howdja get that burn there?", he said as he looked at my arm and then up at me.
"I walked into someone and their cigarette burned my arm". I took a bite of the sausage as we watched the news.
* * *
I looked down at the scab on my arm. It was going to heal okay. I rested my head and closed my eyes. I didn't feel like doing the reading assignment. I didn't feel like doing much of anything.
"Hey, what's wrong?", My eyes were closed, but I knew who was asking.
"You only rest your head like that when something's wrong".
"I'm alright, just feeling crappy".
I could feel her gaze fall to my scab. "Hey, did someone put a cigarette out on you or something?"
"No, I was just really drunk last weekend and I dropped an ash on myself".
I heard her get out of her desk and I suddenly convulsed with laughter as she started tickling me.
* * *
I glanced at my burn, it was just a pink slick of skin now, maybe the size of a red-hot. My stomach was full of butterflies, maybe bees. I swallowed my last bite of hot dog and looked deep into her eyes. On the field below us the football game was in an uproar. A 35 yard pass had been launched and caught as we held each other's stare.
"Becca, will you go out with me?"
"Touchdown Eagles!", shouted the announcer. |
Submission Name: Score
