The Hills at Wallston Park

Patrick could never take bottled water seriously.  Bethel and Shaney loved the junk, but he could never get his head around spending money on it.  It didn't mean that he was unhappy to have the 24 ounces in his hand.  The bottle was at the point where the thinness of the Earth conscious product packaging crinkled every time he brought it up to his lips.  He rubbed the sweating label against his forehead and blonde eyebrows and closed brown eyes.  There was something satisfying knowing they would both be waking up soon and see the note he left by the key dish and would, in all likelihood, proceed directly to the mini-fridge in Carson's bedroom to help themselves.  He would be beyond upset if he knew they were attacking his fridge instead of Pat's.  "Be back soon.  Do not touch my stuff. -Pat"  Carson was a push over, because he had to be.  It's what happened when you lived on someone else's dime.  Beth and Shane knew it.  They knew him for so many years before Pat ever met him.  They knew him like the rope jumping number games of fifth grade math.  Pat still did the long division by hand, but eventually he got answers down on paper the same as them.  It took a while longer, but he figured it out all the same.

Cement Head

It gets old.  To them, that stuff is still brand new.  Still touching the edge of an ocean with a sponge and then running home with that sponge and squeezing it out into a jar.  When you're friends come over you can point to it on your window sill and say "yes, that was the time".  When you're friends are gone you can open up the jar and pour a little more on your dried up soul and feel rejuvenated.   Alive again, like nobodies business.  Eventually he'll grow up and realize there is no reason to not unzip your skin and throw your whole body into that ocean.  Kids these days.  "I was there too, once."  Letting go of his arm is harder to do than I expected.  It falls limp across my eyes and brow and I let it stay there to block out the fading, bluing, two foot square, window above my eyes.  "Then I realized things could get so much better."