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Authors: Brendan Halpin
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do to use that against me. Goodbye.”
Dad stormed out of the house, started up his bike, and left. Well, the hell with him. Wasn’t that why he was always telling her this stuff? “I got drunk and slept with somebody who didn’t deserve me and got stuck with this CF kid and if you do the same, I might get stuck raising a CF grandkid too, and I want to have a life when you finally croak.”
I mean, right? It was pretty hard to hear about how those actions could have unintended consequences when she was the unintended consequence.
Brianna arrived at school feeling a mixture of barely suppressed fear, annoyance with Dad, and dread of the awkward apology Mr. Thompson would offer if he saw her. She couldn’t wait to see Melissa and Stephanie, but she didn’t want to talk about anything.
Melissa and Stephanie had their own problems. Melissa had a quiz that day and was panicking. It took Brianna ten solid minutes before she was confident that Melissa understood the concepts enough to get through the quiz on her own.
As soon as Melissa’s pre-calc problems were squared away, it was back to Stephanie and how she and Kevin had a fight and then he went to the mall with some girl from Gloucester named Kandy. With a K. And she was actually asking
whether
she should dump him.
“Steph, that’s one strike and you’re out,” Melissa said.
“I know, but then he called me like an hour later and told me he was sorry and he loved me—he
loves
me! He never said that before! And he just sounded so cute, I mean he was really really sorry. And it’s not like I haven’t gotten mad at him and called somebody else.”
“Yeah, but …” was all that Brianna got out.
At that point, the bell rang, and Melissa and Brianna just looked at each other. “What are we going to do with her?” Brianna thought at Melissa, and Melissa’s look said exactly the same thing.
Adam had earbuds in his ears and yanked them out when he saw Brianna walk into homeroom. “Hey.”
“What’s up?”
“I am completely obsessed with
Forever Changes
. I have no idea what most of these songs are about, but … it’s just so cool.”
“Yeah. I like it too. Even if I can’t really understand it,” Brianna agreed.
“You know what I get from it? Well, I mean, I couldn’t really tell you what any single song is actually about, but I think the album is about how life is really beautiful and horribly ugly at the same time.”
Well, Brianna thought, that about sums it up. She was silent for a second as she let Adam’s words sink in. She’d been wondering what it was about the music that spoke to her, and that was it. It felt good to have somebody finally put into words what she’d been trying to figure out.
“Yeah. That’s exactly what it’s like,” she said.
“Well, let’s hope Mrs. Marrs buys it. I’m writing about it for English.”
Brianna smiled. Here was another difference between her and Adam. There was no way she would ever write about Love for English class, or even tell anybody else but Adam about the CD. It felt too private somehow. Or maybe, she thought, she just didn’t have the guts to admit in public that she liked something so weird. “You gonna like interview Eccles about it or something?” she aksed.
“Maybe after my paper is done. I think it’ll wreck my thesis if he tells me something about how they were all just stoned out of their minds and wrote words on pieces of paper and assembled them randomly or something.”
Brianna laughed. “So I got an interview at MIT on the same day as you,” she said.
“Cool! I’m glad … I mean, it’ll be good to know somebody there.”
In calc, Eccles was fine, totally his normal self. You’d never guess that he looked like he was going to croak on the beach the day before. He gave the homework, and while everybody was packing up, and he called out, “Ms. Pelletier! May I
Dad stormed out of the house, started up his bike, and left. Well, the hell with him. Wasn’t that why he was always telling her this stuff? “I got drunk and slept with somebody who didn’t deserve me and got stuck with this CF kid and if you do the same, I might get stuck raising a CF grandkid too, and I want to have a life when you finally croak.”
I mean, right? It was pretty hard to hear about how those actions could have unintended consequences when she was the unintended consequence.
Brianna arrived at school feeling a mixture of barely suppressed fear, annoyance with Dad, and dread of the awkward apology Mr. Thompson would offer if he saw her. She couldn’t wait to see Melissa and Stephanie, but she didn’t want to talk about anything.
Melissa and Stephanie had their own problems. Melissa had a quiz that day and was panicking. It took Brianna ten solid minutes before she was confident that Melissa understood the concepts enough to get through the quiz on her own.
As soon as Melissa’s pre-calc problems were squared away, it was back to Stephanie and how she and Kevin had a fight and then he went to the mall with some girl from Gloucester named Kandy. With a K. And she was actually asking
whether
she should dump him.
“Steph, that’s one strike and you’re out,” Melissa said.
“I know, but then he called me like an hour later and told me he was sorry and he loved me—he
loves
me! He never said that before! And he just sounded so cute, I mean he was really really sorry. And it’s not like I haven’t gotten mad at him and called somebody else.”
“Yeah, but …” was all that Brianna got out.
At that point, the bell rang, and Melissa and Brianna just looked at each other. “What are we going to do with her?” Brianna thought at Melissa, and Melissa’s look said exactly the same thing.
Adam had earbuds in his ears and yanked them out when he saw Brianna walk into homeroom. “Hey.”
“What’s up?”
“I am completely obsessed with
Forever Changes
. I have no idea what most of these songs are about, but … it’s just so cool.”
“Yeah. I like it too. Even if I can’t really understand it,” Brianna agreed.
“You know what I get from it? Well, I mean, I couldn’t really tell you what any single song is actually about, but I think the album is about how life is really beautiful and horribly ugly at the same time.”
Well, Brianna thought, that about sums it up. She was silent for a second as she let Adam’s words sink in. She’d been wondering what it was about the music that spoke to her, and that was it. It felt good to have somebody finally put into words what she’d been trying to figure out.
“Yeah. That’s exactly what it’s like,” she said.
“Well, let’s hope Mrs. Marrs buys it. I’m writing about it for English.”
Brianna smiled. Here was another difference between her and Adam. There was no way she would ever write about Love for English class, or even tell anybody else but Adam about the CD. It felt too private somehow. Or maybe, she thought, she just didn’t have the guts to admit in public that she liked something so weird. “You gonna like interview Eccles about it or something?” she aksed.
“Maybe after my paper is done. I think it’ll wreck my thesis if he tells me something about how they were all just stoned out of their minds and wrote words on pieces of paper and assembled them randomly or something.”
Brianna laughed. “So I got an interview at MIT on the same day as you,” she said.
“Cool! I’m glad … I mean, it’ll be good to know somebody there.”
In calc, Eccles was fine, totally his normal self. You’d never guess that he looked like he was going to croak on the beach the day before. He gave the homework, and while everybody was packing up, and he called out, “Ms. Pelletier! May I
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