Please Don't Be Upset
Brandi Wells
Language: English
Pages: 102
ISBN: B005X393ZC
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Please Don’t Be Upset is a collection of fifteen perfectly rendered stories–lists, instructions, yearnings, confessions, more–stories about imperfect mothers and daughters, women and men, strange stories about folded bodies and stalking deer, stories about the small, heartbreaking ways we fail each other, yet cling so tightly.
Woman 39 Contortionist Ballerina 49 Bald 53 Beetles 67 Thanks Again 73 Sock Addiction 91 Seven Things I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You 96 Please Don’t be Upset 98 please don’t be upset 5 instructional Grab me by the back of my neck and slam me facedown on the desk, so my cheek is against the slick wood surface and the desk corner juts into my stomach. Pull my skirt up roughly (because, really, doesn’t it have to be a skirt? It’d be hard to rape someone in jeans. Especially skinny jeans).
biting my hand. My eyelids look swollen with no eyelashes. The skin is dotted with broken blood vessels. I cry while I pluck the hair from my genitals. I have to stop several times to rest and lay naked on the cool bathroom tile. I mix myself a gin and tonic, drink it and pour myself a gin. Where once was hair is now red bumps and dots of blood. Swollen and uncomfortable, I fall asleep on my back on the bathroom floor. 66 Brandi wells The next day I open a new bottle of gin and start on one
SOON NOW. I hope to make my words so large that you will think I am a giant and you will cease fighting me. Sincerely, Girl 88 Brandi wells *** Dear Girl, *** That’s all it says. No other words. No explanation of the strings he has attached to me. These wet sticky strings, tight, almost like rubber bands. Attached to hundred of places on my body. He twists me and I try to stop him. I flail and pound the ground. I grapple for the side of the couch. “Why?” I ask, looking at him, where he hangs
Pull your cock out— But isn’t that awkward? Do you pull it out with one hand and hold me down with the other? Maybe you lean really hard against me so I can’t get away. Then force your way in. This isn’t hot at all because I’m drydry. Like, sandpaper, sandbox, middle of the night thirstydry. I mean, back up dude. Give me a chance to get wet. Lick your fingers, rub my clit, and pinch my goddamn nipples. 6 Brandi wells Breathe heavy on my neck. Bite the back of my shoulder. Wrap your arms
crying because I’ve never been a child who cries. Instead I stare at the way the fence posts overlap, rotting, green and all worn down smooth in places. I stare at the bare spots on the ground where grass never grows. Maybe there are tree roots beneath the earth, buried pets wrapped in garbage bags. She kneels next to me, bending over and squatting until, no, she isn’t as tall as me, but she is so wide I cannot see all of her. She stretches out and away and I can’t see her mouth. I can only hear