The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

I’ve Lived Through Worse, or The Most I’ve Paid for Lunch in Spokane
by Angela Yuriko Smith

There was that one time I lay staring at the plastic skinned, faux wood paneling in your bathroom for three days straight, naked, dazed, stunned. I watched your bare lightbulb a lot, trying to count the small, brown specks that dotted the thin glass. It was a harsh light, like you. A glaring intrusion into my purple dreams, heavy with something in the milk, no such thing as a free lunch. Your bathroom smelled sour, like sweat and vinegar, just dirty laundry, shadows and deep, deep dreams of anywhere. Was your mother always there, or just visiting? I heard voices, not in my dreams, not in the room, and the thought that I was alone slid through my brain like black molasses, as dark as your walls…

… and then I was back. The door was ajar and you were down the long hall. My pants, my shirt, wadded in the corner, snatched up. Through a narrow opening, near enough, a front door deadbolt, and then the cool brass knob was in my palm. My insides were cold, numb, frozen as I twisted the lock latch with trembling efficiency, and the door opened. I was the blind wind, an eagle-missed rabbit, a second chance, zagging behind bushes, zigging through alleys, my back a magnet for your eyes, my bare feet painting the pavement in blood. Excitement and terror twisted together so tight in my chest there was no more room for breath and I stopped. Re-clothed, a payphone, a collect call, a ride arriving as you walked down the middle of the quiet, neighborly street, demanding your girlfriend back. I never knew we were going steady.

Three days of my life
                      is a high price for lunch, but
a cheap lesson learned.

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Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com.

More from Angela Yuriko Smith:

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space and Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.