1- Charles

Meet Charles a "sissy" from Arizona.

"I hate you!" Annie screams as she storms out of the trailer, the mesh door swinging back and forth in her wake. "And to think I was ever going to marry you!" With this, she pulls her engagement ring off her skinny witch finger and looks back only to throw the ring at my devastated father.

    "Good riddance!" he shouts back at her, but you can tell he doesn't mean it. He is on the verge of breaking down and crying, which is why it doesn't surprise me when instead of trying to find the ring that landed somewhere in the hot dirt, he turns on his heel and walks back into the trailer.

     I watch him walk into the kitchen, throw open the door of the mini-fridge, and grabs the first container full of alcohol he sees. I don't see the rest of the scene reveal itself because I'm already walking out of the door, on my way out I grab a pair of sandals. 

    "Where the hell do you think you're going?" he spats at me, his speech garbled by the alcohol he is consuming. 

    "On a walk." I state.

    "Oh, finally he grows some balls! Praise the lord." My father shouts. I keep walking tears threatening to invade my eyes and I'm willing them to go but they won't stop stinging the corners of my eyes. 

    As I walk farther away from the trailer I step on something sharp and wince as I pray to god that it was just a really sharp rock, but I know as soon as I move my foot I just stepped on Annie's ring. I squat down and pick up the ring, thanking genetics for making me as light as a bird thereby ensuring the ring was still intact.

    I tuck the ring in my pocket and continue along my path. I probably won't be welcome back in the house for a couple more hours. I have nowhere else to go so I will be spending the rest of the day in the Arizona heat. I consider walking along the shaded path but then I realize that would just lead me to Annie's house, and knowing that would only add gasoline to the fire, I turn to head down the street. 

    The tears that had subsided for however brief a moment had returned threatening to spill over. I know my father is just angry but it hurts to hear the truth. Many people would disagree with my father's opinion of me, but there are several who would. Most of my neighbors know about my accident and they know ever since I dislocated my shoulder that I haven't even tried to apply for college, they all know that, yet most of them are unfazed by my efforts or lack thereof. 

    I'm a sissy and I wasn't always, I was on the football team, had been since 8th grade and now look at me sulking in a hot Arizona trailer park too scared to go back home.The tears have spilled over now and they fall slowly down my cheeks leaving trails of hot, salty water.

    I take a deep breath in through my nose and out my mouth, wipe the tears away on the back of my arm, turn the corner, and almost get hit by a wrench flying a mere few inches from my nose. I step back startled and turn to see someone hunched over the open hood of a car.

    "Be a dear and bring that here would you?" The figure asks, all though I feel as though it's less of a request and more of a demand.

    "Uh sure, I guess." I reach down and grab the wrench that almost broke my nose. "Here you go," I say and walk over to the person.

    "Thanks, darling," they say as they turn around to grab it. I'm sure the shock registers on my face as I take in the person who flung a wrench at my face. I look her up head to toe. She has grease all over her face and her tee shirt.