TheQuelch

High School Sweetheart Chapter 3 By Lauren Bliss It was prom night, and I was ecstatic. I was dressed in a pink, strapless, diaphanous gown that fell to mid thigh. The bodice clung to my developing curves, but the neckline was high enough to remain tasteful. My opera length gloves fit snugly around my arms. I wore my mother’s pearls, and carried a small drawstring purse, while I paced nervously around our living room. Ela was there, dressed similarly. We stood for photos while our mothers beamed proudly. I felt beautiful, but was extremely nervous for some reason. Was I going to get stood up? Imagine going through all this trouble, only to have your date never arrive. I checked my hair in the mirror for the hundredth time, and still, not a single strand was out of place. My lipstick was perfect. I couldn’t find a single thing wrong, but I couldn’t shake the pervasive uneasiness that penetrated my very being. I heard rapping at the door. For a moment my tension eased. Confidently, I

High School Sweetheart Chapter 1 By Lauren Bliss I remember it like it was yesterday; my father and I, riding down New York State Route 141, somewhere around Westchester County. He was a delivery man for a small furniture business run out of our hometown, Brooklyn, NY. That morning, his boss, Mr Albertson, had come by very early to dump a last minute job on him. My father, still drunk from the night before, tried to put him off, but the old, wry-faced codger made it very clear that it wasn’t a request. “Marvin’s got a baseball game today.” my father explained. “He could really make it in the big leagues one day, Mr Alberson. I can’t ask him to drop everything, last minute. How am I supposed to get this thing through someone’s front door by myself?” Marvin was my older brother. He dropped out of high school when he was fifteen and started working with our father to help keep food on the table. He was nineteen at that point. He’d usually spend his weekends playing baseball down at