Poetry

Short Stories

Audrey

TW: hurtful language, sexual coercion


I met her at my buddy Jack’s place. His girlfriend brought over her friends, and when I first saw her, she was standing in the kitchen, looking for something to drink. I thought she was way outta my league, so I didn’t even bother going over to her. I just tried to look over as much as I could in hopes that maybe I’d catch her staring back. No, I don’t remember what she was wearing or how she did her hair or anything corny like that. But then again, I don’t remember much from that night.

We started dating on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. On that day, I actually do remember what she was wearing: a gold top with some black jeans and heels. I’m not the type to remember what girls wear, but I guess this is where I started to love her. Love does some weird things to your brain, I swear. She’s not like other girls, and I don’t know what past dudes have done to her, but I know I don’t want to hurt her. At least, that’s what I told myself. I’m still confused as to what went wrong, but I will get to that part.

I met her family in March, and they were some of the nicest people I have ever spoken to. Her dad, big football guy, Dallas Cowboys specifically. Her mom, makes the best steak and potatoes. Audrey is vegetarian though. Her house had one of those fancy spiral staircases. Her family wasn’t rich and all but well off enough to have a house with one of those fancy spiral staircases. One time, I tripped walking up it and dropped both of our Colas down the stairs. They went everywhere, but her mom was so chill and cleaned it up for us. She had really cool parents, definitely not like mine. It’s funny how much you can learn about a person from dropping a can of cola in their home.

For her birthday, I bought her the most expensive jewelry I could find. I did so much research and even asked my sister, Jess, who I don’t speak to. She told me what to buy though, and I thanked her. I probably won’t speak to her until next Christmas now. Audrey was shocked at how much I spent on her, but I wanted to show her how much I love her. I think that’s what hurts the most, I still love her. But how could she dump a guy like me while I have everything going for me? She said she would never hurt me like this, but she did. It’s been a week since we’ve broken up, and I bet she’s Snapchatting other guys and being a hoe. Whatever, I don’t really care. There are plenty of other girls who I can get with, even hotter than her I bet.

Something I forgot to mention about Audrey was that she was a virgin when I met her. She constantly asked if this bothered me, and I always told her no, because it didn’t. She said sometimes she wanted to consider saving sex for marriage, but she wasn’t even religious or anything. Sex just meant a lot to her, apparently. I wasn’t worried though because I knew we’d have sex one day anyway, and I was right. She was good at it too. I got annoyed sometimes though because one day she’d wanna do it then the next she’d be “not in the mood”. I don’t get how you can switch up like that, and it’s so annoying more than anything. It was fine though, because after a little bit of complaining on my end, she’d let me stick it in. Worked every time.

I was so good to her. I wonder sometimes if I was just not hot enough for her. That’s so dumb though, she literally has a big ass forehead and super thin lips which brings her from a 9 to a solid 5, maybe 6 at best. She can get with as many dudes as she wants though, I really don’t care anymore about her or this situation.

Back around the time that I met her and we weren’t dating yet, freshman year of college, we went to a formal together. That was easily one of the best nights of my life. We pre-gamed at one of her friend’s dorms with like 20 people, but she was the only girl I wanted to look at. She just drew me in or something. She got really drunk that night too, and I really didn’t want some scummy guy to take advantage of her so I looked after her. We all went to a club and danced, we had so much fun together. I remember flashes of dancing and hugging and kissing at the club. Then we went back to Audrey’s friend’s dorm to hangout for a bit. After that, we went back to my dorm, and she slept over. That’s all I remember from that night though. Audrey says she doesn’t remember the night at all- not even a little. When we woke up, we both were half naked though, so who knows what happened. Maybe we had sex. Maybe we didn’t. Doesn’t really matter, we started dating a month later anyway.

I’ve been telling everyone the breakup was mutual, but I know it wasn’t. If Audrey didn’t bring it up, I wouldn’t have agreed to it. I liked being with her, she became my best friend. I might love her still and shit but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s a bitch for ending it. I don’t tell my friends this, but she really hurt me. And for what? What did I do to her? I treated her good, bought her nice things, let her even put make up on me once. She really loves make up, and I let her do mine- only one time, and I would never tell the boys that. Ever. Moral of the story is that I was such a good boyfriend to her. I was nothing like the guys she had dated in the past, she said. She dated a whole lot of dicks, but always told me I wasn’t one.

Sometimes I felt bad for yelling at her though. I definitely shouldn’t have done that, but I apologized so much for it. I just get so angry sometimes, my brother says it’s because of the “environment I grew up in” or whatever that’s supposed to mean. He’s a psychology major and way smarter than me so I guess he’s able to analyze my mind. Maybe he can analyze her mind and tell me what on earth is wrong with her. Honestly, I don’t care anymore. I really don’t.

That night I told you about, at Jack’s place, she actually ended up coming up to me. She saw me looking for a drink in the kitchen and told me there was Coke in the fridge if I wanted that. She introduced herself as Aud, but I always liked Audrey, her full name, better.

Little Pink Pill

Darcy knew she was not pretty. She was that of a destroyed Van Gogh painting, and Starry Night, specifically. No one knew about her. No one knew about Angelica either, you know Angelica? The one with red hair, always straightened and a bit fried. Nonetheless, she had freckles- so many that the individual dots just blended into one big glaze of orange across her pointy nose and apple-shaped cheeks. Darcy was the one with the curly brown hair, eyes that sparkle but often with the pain of what takes place at home. I know most people didn’t notice them because why would they notice unconventional beauty.

Angelica danced and sang around her room to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and indeed she did want to but never did. Her embarrassment of how much she would sweat after one move and the lack of breath due to her asthma always stopped her from dancing at school dances. And on February 14th, 1997, the day of the date auction was when I first noticed her pop a little pink pill. She would have never known I was watching, but I was. No one wanted to bid on her, and I believe that was the cause of the pill popping, but I will never really know. Of course I would have bid on her, but I never and still do not have the confidence to do something like that.

Darcy never wore makeup, but for spirit week, she thought why not. So, she showed up with pops of blue stuff on her eyes, not sure what you call that. Her eyelashes looked...extended? And her cheeks looked rosy, but in a cute way. I witnessed Maureen Towers absolutely humiliate her in front of the popular girls. I was at my locker, which happens to be two down from Maureen’s. I was trying not to stare, but I was looking more at how beautiful Darcy looks when she cries than focusing on why it was taking place. That was the day that Darcy took her first little pink pill, I saw her do it at her locker in between wiping the tears of black liquid off of her face.

You may be wondering who I am, but you see- I am a nobody. Just like Darcy and Angelica were. There is no point to describing my existence, but all I know is that I would never take a little pink pill like those idiots did.

Those two weren’t friends, in fact, they didn’t even know each other. One was in tenth and the other in eleventh. I am in eleventh, but I’m young for my grade.

I don’t know what the little pink pill does, or what it did. All I do know is that after a week of each girl starting their doses, they became popular, liked and mean to other girls all at once. I watched them turn into girls who dressed to impress and had success in doing so, but I stopped liking them, and that made me upset. One could have been my girlfriend, if I had tried, and if they had never popped those pills. Did they think guys like me liked girls who popped little pink pills? Did they really think that was attractive? All this makeup, and short skirts. Who would ever want them? Thank God I see this now, and for that I thank my little blue pill.