* The last apartment was the worst of them all. The thermocouple on the space heater was so utterly broken that we would often wake up and be able to see our breath at it escaped from under several donated blankets. My feet didn't warm up for five months, and I was sick more than I had ever been in my entire life. We couldn't complain to the landlord about the untenable living conditions because we owed two months of rent at any given time. And, believe it or not, this was the highlight of the year.

   * She said that it would only be for the night, and even though I knew better, I went along with it. I have no idea who she thought I was, but there must have been something in the stockroom that drew us toward each other for a moment. We sat up listening to Coltrane for a few hours, talking about something either so inane or boring that it escaped my memory. We succeeded in getting naked, but something was wrong. I'm too much of a sentimental bastard. She left in a hurry, and now things are very uncomfortable at work.

   * It's one thing that my ex was at their wedding. I knew that they were still really close, and they told me beforehand that she was going to be there. Whatever. I love them, and I can put that aside and make a happy day for them. But what they neglected to mention that they didn't just invite my ex, but her sister and her parents as well.

   * I can hear them screaming at each other in the house next door. Even with the windows closed, it feels like they're in the next room. Every time, it seems like they're more violent with each other, or with the kids. That is one fucked up situation.

   * An ever complicated stack of lies that I've been using to keep my world together is slowly becoming a masochistic round of Jenga. My relationships, my job, my home, and any semblance of order would come crashing around my ankles if people keep asking questions. I'm not going to go to jail, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to need at least a 200-mile buffer if things fall apart.

   * I'm desperate, and I've got do to something to save myself. I'll give my roommate $250 for a trip to go to New York, get some K, and bring it back. We'll split the profit. That should get me that $500 I need to come back to school next semester. I don't know don't know why I didn't think of this before now.

   * I can totally keep this threesome going. This is everything I've ever wanted.

   * The reason that she doesn't know where I am is because I've been cheating on her. I don't feel the least bit bad about this, because she cheated on me less than twenty-four hours ago. Perhaps, under a more solid piece of morality, I would have taken the bullet, but if this is the kind of relationship that she wants, that's just fine with me. When I come home, I'm sure that we'll fight about this until both of us want to kill ourselves. That is tomorrow night. Tonight, I'm going to lay in bed with this girl, and forget about the rest of the world.

   * She had been off of her medication for so long that I couldn't remember what she had been taking. She worked part time at the mall, and on payday she would run out and buy clothes or music or chocolate or whatever an errant sideways thought dictated she do with the money. That left me to cover the rent, the bills and the food. Fortunately for her, friends would buy lunch, or she could stop home and raid her parents refrigerator. Since I didn't have a support system outside of the strobe light consistency of her assistance, I would go two or three days on an egg roll, and neglect to mention any of it to her. I lost forty pounds in three months, and started to look like I had come down with cancer. I ripped the phone out of the wall because I was tired of waking up to a collection agency.

   * He said that he's selling the building. I don't blame him at all. This place must have tripled in value over the seven years he's owned it. He's got his eye on the building next door to the one he lives in, so I can understand that too. The new owner seems nice enough. I'm sure that the tenants that he's planning on moving in upstairs won't be too much trouble.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.