By Peter J.
“What a weirdo.” Sarah, the tenth grader, hissed. The other popular girls snickered as an overweight, acne-covered, glasses-wearing girl shuffled past. Sarah’s contact-lens blue eyes didn’t show it, but she saw herself in that awkward girl.
She remembered her old school. The word ‘weirdo’ driving into her protruding gut, telling her she wasn’t worthy. It jump-started her own puking. Not just puking up her food, but puking up everything. Anger, shame, the heartbreaking word replaying in her head.
The word had been repeated to her so much that spitting it back up now seemed easy.
As easy as spitting up food.
Nice, grahic job of showing empathy toward others who have suffered the same fate as ourselves.
Thank you Bobby!
I agree, I felt that puking uneasy feeling myself. Great story!
The metaphor here, as disgusting as it is, is fabulous. And the setting leads us all to identify in one way or another as adolescents. But it can unfortunately be translated into the “adult” world. Politics, for ex.
Again, a stellar piece of writing.