Her shoulders drooped with the weight of her Catholic guilt as the statue of white Jesus stared down at her, telling her, I know what you’ve done. His dark eyes seemed to be in perpetual melancholy as her own peered into them. That statue always scared her, always seemed to follow her home from church; it was the first thing she’d see in her grandmother’s kitchen, a miniature version of the statue hung up in her room right in front of the doorway. She had always accepted that Jesus would be a permanent part of her life, just as she had accepted that she bore responsibilities, as the eldest daughter and the first grandchild, to fall in line with what her family expected from her..
Short Story
Umbrellas
A pair of unlikely friends caught in the pouring rain unpack a girl’s perhaps undeserved reputation.
piper&jenny
Jenny and I met in the early days of middle school, when everyone was all acne and gangly legs, and got on like a gasoline-soaked house gets on with a match. Frankly, it was a nightmare for our parents. My mom, who I know had been quietly worrying about my ability to make friends, was suddenly unable to enter a shared space in our house without me bombarding her with requests to go to Jenny’s house, stories of something funny that Jenny had said at school today, of Jenny’s new puppy that she got last week.
La Rousse
Illustrated by Christopher Ikonomou (Xe/He) This piece was originally published in our Winter 2022 Volume 2 print issue “Wanting: A Queer Beauty & Burden.“ Since checking into work that morning, Lynn had done little besides load up the popcorn machine…
Holding On to Let Go
Photo by Zoë Collins (She/Her) She felt the presence approach her before she heard the sand shifting beside her head. “This isn’t like you.” She opened her eyes to a half squint. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she responded. “Come…
Headlights
Photo by Zoë Collins (She/Her) Julia’s headlights lit up the road in front of her, darkness curling around the light’s edge and lurking behind every corner. Music was flooding through her crackling speakers, its rhythm syncing with the loud pound…