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“How about tonight you stop worrying about everything…and I dothe last word, “and just enjoy the irl, but you’re trying too hard It’s the fucking suht? So take the ti?”

I wanted to argue with Mel about needing to keep going, about buckling down and trying harder Being arodeo anda femaleto Mel would do ood She was black and she had her own share of prejudices and obstacles to deal with, even in a field like nursing Even in everyday life

I smiled just as another roll of thunder crashed across the waving fields Goosebu sunshine

“I’ll try to have fun,” I joked “So are we ready to go?”

She took a s at it “Almost”

I sighed and took oneliquid The baloney sandwich I htest and I was already feeling buzzed I tossed the flask back into the car and gave Mel an expectant look

“Happy now?”

She took a pair of Jackie-O sunglasses out of her snug denirinned, her white teeth flashing like lightning against a cocoa sky

“Getting there,” she said and opened the driver’s door That s

“Seriously,” I said as I eased er’s seat “Does he haul trash around in here or what? You know,out of his car in Seattle, ever think of that?”

“Oh, I’ve thought of that” She started the car and it chugged to life Within seconds ere roaring down the country road, s open, Alice Cooper’s “Hello Hooray” blaring froet out the smell or cool down the car My jeans stuck to the seat Dust and heat blasted my face

“Are you worried Ryan’s going to start picking up trash once he goes?” she asked as she whipped the car violently onto the main road

I would have laughed at that but it hit a little close to home

“A little”

She looked at irl”

I shrugged and started paying attention to the way the as tanglingto end up at the shoith a rust-colored rat’s nest

“We could make it work,” I said with quiet determination

“You mad? I mean, I love the dude like I lovea happy ending here He was good for sloppy kisses and cherry popping and looking slauys have been dullsville ever since…well, ever since you started school”

This was all true, so I couldn’t argue Ryan was h school and ere the envy of everyone there At least, I told ood, both of us tall and very athletic, both of us co, hi in public, sickening couples Since I grew up towering over irls and was predisposed to ), I always felt that Ryan’s love forIt definitely helped the high school years go down a lot easier But after we graduated, everything changed—as it should, I guess

“I don’t know, Mel,” I said, wanting to change the subject It wasme feel hotter, dizzier “We broke up but it doesn’t mean the end You never knohere the future will lead us”

She snorted then shot etic look “Hey, I just don’t want to see you spend the rest of the suet hurt in the end Dude was a creep for du your white ass anyway”

I leaned over and slapped ood ass too”

“You can bet on it”

I grinned at her and looked to the dry, quaint streets of don Ellensburg as they caet Ryan out of s to worry about, like the shitty run I had with Moonglow that afternoon, or the rock concert ere about to infiltrate

The venue was this small club near the university called The Ripper It was one of the few places in town that played all ages shohich esoe, but now that I had turned twenty-one and was a lotwith teenyboppers for the best spot in the house was always a full contact sport Tonight’s band, PASTE, featured Terry Black, the extre—and that wasn’t saying much I had reviewed the band’s debut albue paper and called it “mediocre and malicious,” but still secretly hoped I could score an intervieith him before or after the show The band was popular-city

Yup, part ofbreak I had been writing articles, interviews, and show reviews all su the to be picked up Last year I wrote for a few co bands such as Boys N Snakes, and est break when the Seattle Times published a review I did of a Bad Company show No one had really heard of the band, despite having the all-ot attention It also got roceries for the house and a bottle of Wild Turkey forBlack would fix the slulow Continuing on withEars, the music section of CWU’s paper, would make me editor and I could finally write about the bands I wanted to without hearing “but you’re a woman, let the men handle the noise”