Hate

Here's a sample of the story that I'm currently revising. I'm about halfway through my second draft and I think I'll end up going through it one more time. Feel free to let me know what you think (if anybody's out there reading this; I think I hear crickets chirping. Nope, not even crickets. Sigh.)

Brad sat staring at his ragged high-tops dangling over the worn pavement. The dark shadows they cast flicked back and forth under the hot sun until he realized he was kicking his feet like a little kid. He stopped abruptly and let them drop back against the crumbly orange-red brick. He looked up at Jessie. She leaned against the low wall beside him, long, tan legs stretched out. Her painted thumbnails darted like tiny purple-headed cobras, striking the buttons in quick succession.

The bright heat of the day glared down on the dusty street. Cars slid by with low growls and swishing of air, hot streaks of light sliding along their glossy sides. The smell of sun-cooked pavement and car exhaust washed over the two on the sidewalk.

Brad squinted against the white sunlight and guessed that it might be almost three o’clock. He looked up sideways at Jessie, one eye squeezed shut and the other barely open. He opened his mouth to speak and then shut it, shaking his head as she started to talk to her phone.

“Yo girl, what’s up?”

Jessie’s face lit up and her intent expression changed into a wide-eyed smile. She kept talking into the tiny pink phone as she settled her shapely backside onto the cracked and dirty concrete ledge on top of the wall. Her quick fingers pushed her long hair behind an ear and then worked a small earpiece on as she leaned back.

“Oh, you know it.”

Brad sighed loudly and put his head down again, kicking the wall hard with both feet. He shifted his butt from one side to the other, pulling the cloth of his shorts away from his sweaty skin. They had spent the whole day in front of the tan brick townhouse where Jessie and her mother lived. He looked back at the building behind them. Her mother had left a couple of hours ago and still they sat out here in the heat while she talked on her phone.

She laughed loudly, throwing back her shiny dark hair and showing her smooth face to the blue sky. Brad looked up at her again. He couldn’t help staring at the delicate curve of her chin as she shook her head at the high wispy clouds, brows beetled in a severe, but stunning, look. His heart beat faster for a moment and he bit his lip.

“Oh yeah,” she answered sagely.

Brad didn’t even try to imagine what words of wisdom she so solemnly agreed with. In a moment she confirmed it or something like it, whatever it mattered.

“She is a total B.”