The half moon was just barely winking above the horizon as I pounded down the beach early one spring morning. It was my first time being out since last fall and I smiled for a second as my run interrupted some sandpipers out in the tidepools looking for breakfast. They all took flight at once, a dozen tiny brown flightlings yelling pint sized ( Read more... )

“So what’s your answer ( Read more... )

“Five, six, seven, eight!” called Mrs. O’Shea as Penelope lifted me into the air. Her strong fingers were on my hips and I could feel her nails digging in, just a little. I raised my arms over my head, trying to let the music flow through me and direct my movements. O’Shea was all about the body’s natural response to music, and almost nothing we ( Read more... )

A few miles away from here, there’s a lady singing in a bar, and I love her, and she loves me. But I’m not at the bar now. I should be, but as I open up the church door and slip inside, I remind myself that there is more important work to do tonight. Something I’ve been putting off for a long while, and the time to complete it grows short ( Read more... )

Maybe, I find myself thinking tonight as I’m heating up leftovers for dinner, maybe I don’t need to go to therapy anymore. I haven’t been in three weeks. I don’t really miss it. I mean, I’m stable. Right? Mostly. Meds are, anyway. I’m learning good coping mechanisms to combat my ADHD. Or at least I’m learning them on a theoretical level, even ( Read more... )

Tap, tap, tap. Nora’s short fingernails weren’t good for much, but they could still make noise on the bar countert when she got impatient. She checked her phone. Resisted the urge to text again. What would I say? She thought. “No, but for real, are you coming?” after the last text from Jamie had said, “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” That had ( Read more... )

Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you just know in your bones that you should’ve gone back to sleep. Those times, Nora’s grateful to have the job she does. She can’t go back to sleep. People need dinner. She pulls on an old soft sweater, jeans, her denim jacket with the patches on the back. Thinks about brushing her hair but it’s greasy ( Read more... )

Buckle up, let's do this. More queer girls, magic, and Southern settings comin' your way!

"There's only one rule in this game," Jackie said as she loaded the film into the camera. She tapped her Parliament against the crystal ash tray. "Just don't look at the lens." She adjusted it and took another drag, exhaling a feathery breath of smoke. Tucking an errant chunk of ash blonde hair behind her ear, she peered at the Japanese curtain in ( Read more... )

Trigger warning: this entry discusses sexual assault.The final line is a lyric from "Hold On" by Alabama Shakes.It happened whenever I got in the shower. Not a bath, not a pool, but a shower specifically. Nobody knew why the shower, and not any other body of water. Not my therapist, psychiatrist, and certainly not me ( Read more... )