Neon Jane by Maia Evrigenis

Author:Maia Evrigenis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 2022-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Elaine is waiting for me out in the car. Her Jetta is new and clean, slick, nothing like the car we used to share in high school. I look around for something, anything to remind me of our childhood selves, when we were young and close, driving to soccer practice on the same team. I’m looking for an empty water bottle, a Subway bag, a sweatshirt, extra soccer shorts or high socks, a beat-up SAT prep book, but there’s nothing. There are only sunglasses in the cupholder.

“Mom just called and screamed at me because I fed the dogs the wrong food,” she says, starting the car. “I mean, what the fuck? They’re not my dogs! I’m not a kid anymore. She can’t yell at me like that. And why does she get so angry?”

“Maybe that’s exactly why she’s mad, because you don’t know how to feed them. Maybe she wants you to come home enough that you would know the new ways.”

“This is why I don’t live here anymore. I hate coming home.”

“I don’t really get why.”

“I just hate it. I don’t have good memories here. High school was horrible for me.”

A car merges in front of us. Its vanity plate says EZVIBES.

“I think it’s really nice, being with Mom and Dad.”

“Your time in that house was different than mine. There’s a lot you weren’t there for.”

“You mean when I was sick?”

“I don’t even want to get into it. But Mom and Dad were different. Mom and I fought, and I’d just started high school.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

The trees on either side of the street sway back and forth as the wind picks up.

“That’s not what I meant. It’s not your fault, Maia.”

“I know,” I say, reminding myself.

She turns on the radio and scrolls to 107.9 The End, the pop station we used to listen to on the way to school. But it’s only static. It doesn’t exist anymore. She turns the radio off.

“Okay, let’s stop talking about this. How was the wax?”

“It was good. Didn’t you see me strut out?”

We laugh a bit, but not enough. It’s still sad in the car as she turns onto Watt Avenue.

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