Read Online One Bloody Thing After Another by Joey Comeau - Free Book Online

there were that many types of bats. Laura’s older sister, Kelly, was on the same soccer team in elementary school as Jackie. Kelly was the biggest girl on the team, tall and muscled. She was the loudest girl, too, and the most popular. Jackie wanted to be her friend. Everyone did.
    Laura was a year and a half younger, with long blonde hair and glasses. She interrupted her sister’s parties to show everyone the newest issue of some scientific journal. She got so excited about things like sonar, and she just couldn’t understand why nobody else got excited. She wanted her sister’s approval, too.
    And everyone teased her. It was just one more way to impress her sister. They threw popcorn at Laura, and “accidentally” spilled their drinks on her dress. They hid her science magazines and replaced them with porn Kelly stole from their dad. Jackie teased her, too.
    And then, at one party, Kelly locked Laura and Jackie in an attic crawlspace together. She locked them in and sat outside with her back to the door, laughing. Jackie could hear another voice, then another, until the whole soccer team was out there laughing. They had planned this.
    Laura and Jackie sat in the dusty crawlspace in silence while everyone laughed outside. Laura was crying, but she was always crying. There was a big crowd outside the door, chanting, “Seven minutes in heaven. Seven minutes in heaven.”
    And Jackie knew that afterward, everyone was going to tease them anyway. These were her friends. She knew them. So she decided, brushing dust off her jeans, that she might as well.
    â€œThey’re going to make fun of us anyway,” she said, and Laura just looked at her. Jackie leaned forward and touched the younger girl’s face. She stopped crying.
    â€œAre you okay?” Jackie said, and Laura nodded. And then Jackie kissed her. Kissing girls comes easy, like breaking windows. Jackie grabbed Laura and pulled her close and she kissed her on the lips. Outside Kelly was laughing and leading the chant.
    Ann still hasn’t said anything. Jackie’s never told anyone this before, but a woman should be brave. She sits back a little, and takes her hand off Ann’s shoulder. They’re sitting too close maybe.
    Jackie’s first kiss was exciting, and dangerous, but no secret. Laura told everyone, when they let the two girls out, and Jackie just laughed. Kelly was going to tease her? She planned to taunt Jackie and call her a lesbian? Well, Jackie kissed her little sister. What would Kelly say at school, then? Jackie is a lesbian? Yes, Kelly, Jackie and your little sister Laura are lesbians together.
    She wants to tell Ann about the look on Laura’s face after their kiss, half shocked, but half dreamy. Or about the letter that Laura wrote her years later, from the far-off city where she was living now. She wants Ann to have that dreamy look on her face now, too, but Ann hasn’t got any look at all.
    Ann gets up, grabs her backpack, and runs out of the room.

29
    Margaret is at the bathroom sink, trying to be quiet. Ann is going to hear her if she doesn’t stop coughing. Margaret coughs again and then again and something wet and red hits the porcelain. She doesn’t look too closely. She washes it down the drain, and then she fills her hands with the cool water and splashes her face. She can breathe again. It was nothing. Ann would only worry./

IF

    30
    It’s a school day, but that doesn’t really mean anything anymore. There’s work to be done. In the back of the paper, someone is giving away kittens. Free to a good home. Some days Ann had to go all the way downtown, but today there’s a whole litter just over by the mall. On the phone, she tries not to ask if the kittens are plump.
    Then she puts on one of her mother’s dress shirts, and clean pants. She puts on her nice shoes. In the mirror she sure looks like she comes from a good home. A decent sort of country girl. Her