My Cardboard Balcony

Beaned Him by Belinda Roddie A boyfriend's girlfriend's sister's boyfriend wanted a coffee from my coffee store. I gave him an espresso, he threw it in my face, so I hauled him out the door.

I didn't have the luxury of going to a house where I didn't feel judged, or unwanted. The air of my parents' residence was pungent with the smell of evangelism, something that reeked everywhere from my room to the kitchen, masking the otherwise pleasant aroma of roast chicken with red potatoes. I stayed away from my family for the most part, not wanting to listen to my mom's bible study with her friends, or my dad's diatribes at the dinner table about how America was being lost to sinners and whores.