(Hey, guys! I submitted this in my Creative Writing class for my midterm, and I got a pretty good grade on it, but I wanted to submit it to a literary magazine and I was wondering if you guys had anything that I could possibly improve on. Thanks!)
The first time I saw Shane Morris, my very first week of high school, he was standing outside of building one, lounging against the cheery yellow stucco, smoking a cigarette. My hair was down to my waist back them, always twisted into an ugly braid, but he still said, “Hey, you,” as I passed him.
I usually ignored the stupid remarks from boys, their whistling catcalls and sexual comments, and even though I knew that this boy would say something rude, I stopped and said, “Yes?” Even from a few feet away, I could smell the sickly sweet odor underneath his cigarette smoke, one that was becoming increasingly familiar as high school went on.
He sucked the noxious fumes into his lungs, running a hand through the stubble of hair on his head. “You new here?” he asked on the exhale.
“Why?” I questioned, looking him up and down. “Does it matter?”
He smiled, a lazy, languid smile. His lips were like baby doll lips, a perfect rosebud that looked strangely unfeminine on him. “I just wanted to know why I hadn’t noticed such a beautiful girl wandering the halls.”
I rolled my eyes. “Wow, creep,” I said, aware of his gaze on me as I stalked purposefully away, aware that it made me blush scarlet even though I pretended I didn’t notice.
Everyone knew who he was. The resident womanizer, the bad boy who owned a motorcycle that he’d probably stolen. He hung out with the pot heads and the kids who weren’t ever going to graduate, and rumors I didn’t listen to said he’d been in high school for six years. After that encounter, his eyes always followed me in the halls, and there was nothing modest about the way he stared at me. I felt like I needed more clothes on whenever I was around him, like he was always undressing me with his eyes.
On our class trip senior year, we went camping in the Everglades, courtesy of the science department. We were supposed to be collecting specimens for our senior projects, but everyone knew that the class camping trip was just an excuse to sneak off and have sex in the woods. It was kind of a senior tradition, I guess.
There was this little creek by the campsite where everyone brushed their teeth, and as it got dark, I switched on my flashlight and stomped out to the only water source, my toothbrush clenched between my teeth. It was kind of eerie, being away from the campsite, in the middle of the wilderness. My dad had told me all sorts of stories about the swamp monster before he’d driven me to school earlier that morning, but it seemed believable once you gazed into the murky water. Maybe that was why I jumped so high when someone came up behind me, footsteps cracking twigs. I turned around, my toothbrush in a mouth foaming with toothpaste, and held my flashlight up. “Who’s there?” I called, but it came out gargled, my tongue tingling from the Minty Fresh Breath Strips in my toothpaste.
Shane stepped out of the darkness, holding up a toothbrush. “Just me,” he said. “You sound a bit scared there, Sydney. What’d you think I was, a swamp monster?”
I rolled my eyes, spitting my toothpaste at his feet. “Very funny, Morris.” I replied, but my arms were covered in goose bumps. Jesus, I always got goose bumps when I was scared, like a little girl or something. “What do you want from my life?”
He smiled, showing teeth long out of braces. Maybe he really was twenty; he had the facial hair of someone who frequented bars and tried to look hip. “Not your soul or anything, don’t worry. Just wanted to borrow your toothpaste.”
“Say please and I might think about it,” I ordered, returning his cheesy grin with my own sarcastic one.
“Come on, Syd, you wouldn’t want to leave me with gross breath, would you? There are a number of girls here who would be very upset about that.”
I threw him the tube. “Oh, give me a break, Morris. You know the only mouth that would kiss you is your mother’s.”
He caught the tube and winked at me, bending toward the creek to wet his toothbrush. I leaned against a tree, one wrapped with strangler vines, and watched him. It was a very human thing, brushing your teeth; it was kind of weird to see him acting like a person instead of a chauvinistic, womanizing man whore. When he finished, spitting into the water, he showed me his teeth. “Anything stuck in there?” he asked.
“I think I see a sprig of broccoli right there,” I said, pointing at his mouth. “I bet Lissa Carter would love to taste that when you play tonsil hockey.”
“How’d you know her favorite food?”
“How would you? I’m sure all you think about when you’re with her are her gigantic boobs.”
“You’re so clever, Syd. That’s probably why you’re the valedictorian.” Sarcasm was easy to tell with Shane; it was the only thing that came out of his mouth other than bullshit about him caring when he just wanted someone to give him head.
“Salutatorian,” I corrected him, grabbing the toothpaste and shoving it in the pocket of my PJs.
“What’s the difference?’ he asked.
I rolled my eyes again, turning around and heading towards the campsite. “The difference,” I called over my shoulder, “is that I’m an inch from being the best. Caroline Cruz has already taken that spot.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Ah, don’t be like that. You’ll always be the best in my eyes.”
I glared at his hand until he pulled it off my skin. “Please don’t touch me, Morris. I don’t want to get AIDs, ‘kay?”
He leaned forward, his minty breath too close. “C’mon, it’s only herpes. That never killed anyone.”
For a second his eyes looked really blue, like toilet water when the janitors just cleaned them, and my breath quickened. It was strange, the feeling that filled my stomach, like when you’re on stage, about to give a speech about leadership or some such nonsense that you’ve only done because you want to get into a good college. You know you’re gonna mess up, you’re just sure, and suddenly he was really close, like close enough to lean forward and kiss and oh my God, I pressed my back against the strangler tree, nervous like when the sky is crackling with lightning and you’re standing under the tallest tree in the woods -
But then I stepped around him, sucking in a big breath, and said quickly, “Good night, Shane. Have fun consummating your horniness in the woods.”
“Have fun doing homework, Syd.” He called, but there was a catch in his voice.
When I got back in my tent, the one I shared with Caroline and her gaggle of study buddies, my stomach hurt for some reason. I took a deep breath and sat down on my sleeping bag, trying to stave off whatever feeling it was that had almost taken me over.
Then I opened my biology book and put on my glasses, content to just feel naked when he walked by and never know how he liked the real thing.
.
