A to Z Challenge, Day 10: L is for Lila

Dear Diary: Today is November 14, 1983. One day ago I married, Max Butz . My mom’s choice, including the wedding dress and secondhand bridal shoes (the shoes are a half-size too small). A bargain for her and a total throat-gagging experience for me. My wedding day should’ve been with Julio Velasquez. Mom made sure I broke up with him at the beginning of summer, and hooked me up with Max right away through one of her Tupperware parties. I should’ve taken Cynthia’s advise ( she’s my best friend). Run away the night before the wedding, and hide in her parents’ beach house, stay there for a couple weeks. You know, wait until mom cooled off ---she’s rather frightening when she doesn’t get her way. Too late now. Mom thinks I’m crazy because I can see dead people and have conversations with them. She doesn’t believe I’ve got a gift. Sometimes I’m not sure myself but Gram believes me. Speaking of Gram, thank God, she’s with me. In spirit, that is. She died right before Julio and I broke up. She understood our love. Still does. Anyway, Gram convinced me to grab the wedding cash Max and me got in gifts at the reception---stuffed it into my bra. She helped me escape out a diner’s bathroom window---off I 75, somewhere a little south of Orlando. Can’t believe I did that still in my wedding dress and these awful bridal shoes, three inch stilts, I swear. I followed her bird friend, a hawk, (she loves all birds and they listen to her, too) into the woods but Max caught up with me. Good thing I had mace in my evening bag. Sprayed him a good one, right into his eyeballs. Boy! He’s mad now, and more so because I’ve stolen his car from a McDonald’s parking lot and stuffed nails in his creepy friend, Coon’s monster trucks tires. And then there’s Max’s friend Vinny. He wants payment for something and seems to think he can get it from me…anyway he can… if you know what I mean. Oh, and I can’t forget Cockroach. He’s just totally grody. I really think he’s part bug. He likes he’d like to torture me or something. And at this very moment, I’m at a Motel 6 trying to figure out my next move. You see, I discovered cocaine and guns in the trunk of Max’s car. So I know they’ll be looking for me. I mean, they did chase me until the trucks tires blew out. Like I said, it’s a good thing Gram’s with me. Until tomorrow. If I actually make it to see tomorrow. Lila

A to Z Challenge, Day 7: I is for Ick Factor!

Have you ever met a guy that just gave you the creepy-crawlies all over? Well, here are three that give Lila the total ick factor. When I thought about Max’s sidekicks, I thought Texas Chain Saw Massacre.  ***shrugs*** Remember those creepy peeps?

My eyes went from Max to his best man, Jasper Gips, nicknamed Coon, and his shiny balding head. It gleamed under the lights. Long, stringy strands of hair touched his collar. All ten of them. I flared my nostrils in disgust and hoped no one noticed. You should’ve kept your Buccaneers ball cap on.

Thank God, the usual tobacco wad that poked out of his cheek was gone. No Slurpee cup at his side to spit in. He smiled and showed off a black hole. Dressing up didn’t help him at all.

 

Coon spit tobacco into a Slurpee cup. Jimmy Hurley stood next to him, gawking. Max and his pals called him Cockroach. The nickname suited him. The rims of his eyes were always red and so were his nose holes. He was skinny and sick-looking, and he twitched a lot. The only thing missing were his bug feelers.

Vinnie stood on the other side of Cockroach and puckered his lips into a kiss at me.

Grody. DISCLAIMER: No one may use any the written content. This belongs to Shelly Arkon.