Lingerie Moment, by Rebecca Mental
It was Victor, the married man I was dating, who showed the Pornhub video to me. The two-minute clip showed a girl splayed out on the end of a white-sheeted bed wearing a black thong with frilly white lace, her legs spread and draped at the knees over the wooden footboard. The video began with the girl touching herself over the top of her underwear, softly rubbing her covered vulva. “I can tell by the fingers,” Victor said. I could tell by the fingers, too. Even though her face was never visible, the girl in the video was unquestionably me.
The Alluring Smell of the Parasite, by James Gallant
Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most successful parasites in nature. It attacks the brains of many hosts: cats, dogs, bears, sheep, cattle, chickens, goats, pigs, rats, mice, and humans. Its characteristic effect is to promote restless, incautious behaviors. These may play into the hands of predators and prove fatal. If the host animal dies, and another creature eats it, the latter will likely be infected with toxo.
In the Fartbox, by Michael Nagle
The nurse was being extremely tactful.
“I think,” she offered tentatively, “that the oxygenation in the room would really be improved if you opened the door to the main hall.”
The Hook, by Paul Crenshaw
There’s always a hook. It’s a staple to this story. A girl, a car, a late boyfriend on a windy night, a hook when she drives away.
At Play in the Fields of the Boys, by Lori Barrett
Part of my crush was on his name: Kevin Leisure.
Our Different Yesterdays, by Marcos S. Gonsalez
The cup on the counter. Unwashed, days there, your body reflections through the smudge marks.
A History of Ghosts, by Faylita Hicks
It was an oddly warm night in November when Ray decided to jump from my third-floor balcony and into the mostly abandoned parking lot below.
In Favor of Romantic Love’s Inevitable Destruction, by Haley Holifield
“You have to teach them all that stuff,” she says, “Men don’t know what to do. They need help figuring it out.” I pump the brakes for dramatic effect.
High-top Serenade, by Serena Simpson
When you’re a little kid growing up in urban America, especially a little kid growing up in public housing in urban America, hardly anything gains you more clout on school grounds than the right pair of kicks.
Like Breathing, by Vonetta Young
Today, a Saturday, in the mall, there are lots of men who remind me of my dad: going bald, not-too-tall, skin the same color as the bark on the pine trees behind my school, tummies starting to poke out.
Zero, Zero, Zero, by Marah Blake
Taxi declares its central tension in the first eight minutes of the pilot episode: making a life for yourself while the life you want is out of reach. It’s big dreams and found family and disappointments that land just shy of melancholy. It’s about finding a way forward despite how stuck you really are.
Yes and No, by Paulette Perhach
An application asks, “Have you ever been suicidal?” Offers two options: Yes or No.
Witnessing, by Jennifer McGaha
On a lazy, last-gasp-of-summer sort of day, I linger on the patio of a south Asheville bakery. Leaning back in my chair, I marvel at the warmth, at the music drifting over from a nearby brewery, at my good fortune for having arrived here on what would have been, COVID notwithstanding, a perfectly normal Friday.