Fiction
A disastrous Obsession
By Cody Tigue
Editor’s Choice
You always said prom would be perfect. You would find the right girl and both of you would dance the night away. Nothing would hold you back. Not your abusive dad or submissive mother. Not your drug-addicted brother or your anorexic sister. You wouldn’t let anything stop your effort to get the girl of your dreams. Not your house, which was actually a trailer. Not your clothes, which were most definitely hand-me-downs. Not even your own head. You swore and swore that your night would be perfect. You promised all of your two friends that you would do anything. You said anything. And you meant it. You were going to do anything. Absolutely anything to get the girl that you want. Charlie has always been in your classes. You and her were a little below average, but that doesn’t bother you. It doesn’t bother her either. Well, it might bother her, but you don’t know that. You haven’t seen the way she cries and screams at night. Haven’t seen how she rips apart her vocal chords as she realizes that she may never be enough. That she will never be an astronaut or a mathematician. But that’s okay, or it would be okay, if it were her fault. But she knows that it isn’t. She can’t change her brain, and neither can you. Even if you are set on doing so. Test scores never mattered to you. Maybe that’s why you never noticed how she was lacking in that department. You always watched her in class. You would steal glances and peeks. Sometimes you would even watch her for long periods of time before she would notice, but she always smiled at you. Never once did she act creeped out, and she never got upset about your actions. That’s what sets Charlie apart from other girls in your mind. She is open and friendly, while other girls are caged and defensive. They act like they weren’t born to be with a man. You think of Charlie all the time. Everyone knows that. She is constantly running around in your head. You fantasize about her smile and voice. You think her voice is so perfect. While you 81
