“When Josh told me about you, I didn’t think you would be 20 years old” I said to Rachel. She rolls her blue eyes and giggles. “We might not be able to drink what what about a movie?” “So cheesy,” I think to myself. “I hate cheesy...” I sigh “Yeah I’m ok with that”

We get in my car and we drive down to the movies. I look over to get a good look at her. She’s wearing baggy sweatpants and a tank top THATS covered in stains of all colours and shapes. I wore a nice button up t-shirt and some jeans. I felt over dressed, even if it was just by a little. She had brown hair, glasses and braces. Her hair was wavy and smooth. I couldn’t see her face well cause her hair hanged down, as she was looking at her phone.

We get to the theatre and i grab my wallet. When she see the wallet, she gets an extra large popcorn and a drink and a pretzel. I got a medium popcorn and a small drink. When we get into the theater itself, the room is packed. There isn’t a single spot left where we could sit next to each other. A blessing in disguise. “Man...what seat do you want?” I ask, trying to save face. She looks at me upset, like it’s my fault there’s no place to sit.

I sit on one end and she sits on the other. I take out my phone to silence it and I get a text. It’s from Rachel. I open it and it’s just the middle finger. I try to look through the crowds of people and she is glaring at me. A small boy sitting next to me taps my shoulder. “Is she with you?” He asks. “Yeah. we’re on a date.” The boy nods and moves over a seat, leaving an open one next to me, before I can even turn to let her know there is a spot next to me, she is already sitting down.

The movie starts and it’s awful. She clearly doesn’t know my tastes. It was one of those “friendship” movies. The kind you would bring your children to two or three weeks after it’s release cause you can’t get them to shut up about it. The entire time, she’s texting, and I get a few quick looks at her phone. She’s telling a friend of hers how bad I am. How I’m a bad person. I stand up and lean to her ear. “I’ll be right back” she doesn’t look up from her phone.

I leave the cinema, tipping the cashiers the money I had left over, and drove to the nearest bar for a drink.

“Case of the Monday’s”

I sit down at the dinner table. It’s an amazing meal. Hearty meat with mashed potatoes and peas. I learned how to cook from my father.

“Mix it not just sit there!” Dad yelled, hitting me in the back of the head. “Yes sir. I’m sorry sir” I respond. I try to mix faster but the batter is just too thick. The whisk breaks, splitting the wire and mixing rust and steel into the batter. “Great job there moron! Would you like to give it a taste test?” He insultingly asks. He grabs a handful of wire and mix and shoves it into my mouth. The wire cuts into my cheeks and I try to split it up in my mouth.

I try to spit it out but dad had made sure I wouldn’t. He covers my mouth with a rag. Now I can’t breathe and I have wire cutting me. I start to cry, hoping it would do something. That mom would get up from the floor and stop staying so still. I wanted to believe it was good colouring. He told me it was good colouring. I swallow it all. The wire splits of throat open. The rust sticks to my mouth.

“Wasn’t so hard, was it?” He asks, suddenly calm again. I try to speak but my tongue is bleeding. My mouth is bleeding. I sit down on the floor, bleeding and crying. Each yell of pain only opened the cuts wider. Dad takes the bowl and puts it in a pan and puts it in the oven. “Happy Birthday you ungrateful brat”

I cut the meat into smaller pieces and then take a bite. She tastes delicious. It’s such a shame she can’t taste herself like this. My knife, still coated in a thick layer of blood, cuts through the meat like butter. It’s soft, juicy, and best of all, tastes like her perfume smells.

“You are wonderful, my dear.” I say to her. She stays slumped over the counter as rigour mortis sets in. I smile, her blood seeps out of my mouth like my 10th birthday. It was such a wonderful cake.

“I wonder how her liver tastes?”