Epic Fail

“I thought we were friends.”
“That’s funny,” I said. “I thought you were decent.”

It was a nice thought, but we arrived safely at the beach a minute later.

As the bus rattled down a steep canyon road in the Palisades toward the ocean, I thought, Hey, maybe the brakes won’t work and the bus will crash and we’ll all die.

“Like this,” he said and got behind me and put his arm around mine so he could guide me through the motion.

And ninth grade is like . . . like some futuristic prison state where everyone’s fighting to survive. And if I stand out like some kind of dork, I’m doomed.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’”

ignored but not abused.