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art by Kate

Nancy was stuck with the ugly guy while her friend was somewhere behind the shopping center screwing his better-looking friend, Stuart. They didn’t say much to each other while they waited for the other two; instead they smoked cigarettes and listened to the radio that the ugly guy had been carrying with him when they met up. When the other two finally emerged from behind a dumpster, the four of them walked to Nancy’s house, where her friend was staying the night since Nancy’s mother was away. Stuart kissed her friend good night, gratuitously and graphically in front of Nancy and the other guy, who must have felt obligated in some way, because he leaned toward her and kissed her, very briefly, but on the lips. After that, when they would pass one another in the halls of their high school, where he was a year or two ahead of her, she would smile and say hello. She never did learn his name.

About the Author
Marco Kaufman has published in several different fields, including literary criticism, medical writing, and Holocaust historicism and currently writes on The Big Book of Grievances, his weblog of short fiction, flash fiction, and works in progress.

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