My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie "But why would you buy pre-wilted roses?" "Makes a statement." "...What." "It makes a statement." " What statement?" "You really want to know?" " Yes!" "That love is fleeting." "..." "That flowers are just fragile symbols of what should be deemed a more permanent and strong emotional commitment." "..." "Or that everything's impermanent, really, so you may as well cut to the chase and show death before it destroys beauty." "..." "..." "John, that is so goth." "I may have gone through a goth phase in my high school years." "What? You?" "Oh, yeah." " How?" "Well, you see, you find some guyliner and some torn up black jeans, and - " "No, I mean how did you get away with being goth?" "What, you saying a black kid c...

After the madness of the game and witnessing just how many racist classmates I really had, I heard a lot of friends use the line, "Well, there goes my faith in humanity." However, given that my faith in humanity was pretty meager to begin me, the levels of said confidence didn't exactly fluctuate. Besides, half of my immediate family was grossly racist - which was why I hadn't told them about my girlfriend Shannon, who put all the other girls at school, black or white, to shame.