Michelle Ross
You were in love with someone else. You told me so while we were making out. Stopped kissing me and said, I’m not interested in a relationship, just so you know. I remember that awful florescent light, your dorm room too bright. Why didn’t you turn out the light? You explained that you were waiting for this other woman. Karen? Was that her name? Waiting, I said. For her to realize she loves me too, you said. I don’t remember what I said then. I may have said I wasn’t interested in a relationship either. What I do know is that we made out many more times after that, always with that damn light on. Was it to ensure I didn’t forget about Karen? There was a photo of her pinned to the wall alongside your bed. There were photos of other people, too. All of them looked down on us. Also, you made this dumb joke over and over again about wishing our arms were detachable. They get in the way, you said. If I could just remove this arm here and you could remove that arm there, you said, then we’d fit better. Making out would be much less awkward.
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Michelle Ross is the author of three short story collections: There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You, winner of the 2016 Moon City Short Fiction Award; Shapeshifting, winner of the 2020 Stillhouse Press Short Fiction Award (2021), and They Kept Running, winner of the 2021 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction (2022). Don’t Take This the Wrong Way, a short story collection she cowrote with Kim Magowan, is forthcoming from EastOver Press. Her work is included in Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, the Wigleaf Top 50, and the Norton anthology, Flash Fiction America. It’s received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology. She is an Editor at 100 Word Story.