An Open Letter to the Girl I Pretended To Have a Crush On in Eighth Grade

A writer recalls being 14 and in the closet in 1995:

“I had never been more proud of myself. I decided to notice you so no one would notice me, and now I was not only assumed straight, but assumed worthy of conversation. I just had to keep broadcasting straightness loud enough to drown out the gay humming underneath.

“Despite having two classes together, I had still barely met you. Ms. Hughes’s class was divided into fifteen tables, each with two students. She had already changed the seating arrangement twice. We couldn’t tell if this was a deliberate strategy on her part—obedience through churn—or if she just couldn’t decide how she’d like us arranged. Each time, you and I had ended up at different ends of the class.

“‘Table six,’ she was saying as we waited near the door, ‘Michael Hobbes and Tracy Dolan.’

“The class, as one, made a kind of awwwww sound, like the studio audience on ‘Full House’.”

Published: Jan 15, 2013
Length: 23 minutes (5,791 words)

Homies: What Happened to Everyone I Went to Middle School With?

Two friends meet up in Bangkok and talk about what became of their childhood friends from the wealthy Seattle neighborhood where they grew up:

“Tim keeps naming mutual acquaintances, and they keep having the same dire fates. There’s Pete Stanton, who in seventh grade had a mustache and was the biggest 13-year-old on the planet. When he was a sophomore at Grant, Pete stabbed a homeless guy under a bridge in a Seattle park, and is serving a life sentence.

“‘I guess he said in court that the homeless guy owed him money,’ Tim says. ‘Even at 15, we were like, damn, this fool needs to rethink his business plan.’

“Then there’s Chaewon. I don’t know his last name and I don’t even know if that’s the right way to spell his first name. He had a face that looked like he was being hung from the ceiling by his hair, and he was always smiling a gummy smile, even when he was slamming his chest up against yours or calling you a faggot. He was always surrounded by five or six other kids our age who looked so similar to each other they can only be called henchmen.

“Chaewon’s in jail now too.”

Published: Nov 12, 2012
Length: 13 minutes (3,447 words)

I Was A Teenage Narc

A writer recalls being employed by the Washington State Liquor Control Board as a teenage informant who bought cigarettes and alcohol without an ID:

“The convenience store was on a suburban street in West Seattle. Kelly parked in the front, in view of the counter, instead of around the corner like she usually did. I went inside, where a clerk who didn’t look much older than I was sold me a Bud Light. I walked back to the car, gave it to Kelly and waited in the car for her to return.

“I could see her through the window, showing the clerk her badge. As they spoke, a man in his mid-40s came out of the store’s back room, walked past Kelly and came, furious, toward the car.

“I checked to make sure the windows were rolled up and the doors were locked. He clawed at the door handle.

“‘Get out of the car!’ he shouted.

“I froze.

“‘I said, get the fuck out of the car!’ He kicked the window. I scrambled for the driver’s seat.

“‘If I ever see you again I’ll fucking kill you!’ he shouted, finally loud enough for Kelly to hear. ‘You better never come here again!’”

Published: Aug 10, 2012
Length: 11 minutes (2,933 words)