Excerpt: Rush

David used colors to describe the weather, and not any of his other senses. There were things he only ever heard about – the scratches sustained when you cannon-balled into a pile of freshly raked leaves, the sticky, rainy air that breezed through your hair and laid a light covering of dew over your entire body, the feeling of the sun getting closer to you even though it wasn’t, burning your skin in a pleasurable way that made you neglect to think of the cancerous consequences that may strike you later in life.

His parents would make poetic references like these to everything under the sun – literally – in hopes of getting him to come outside and toss the football, or even read a book on the patio. It never worked, or hadn’t worked in the past two years, anyway, because here David stayed, shut up in his room with his UFO books and samurai posters and board games he couldn’t play anymore because half the pieces were missing (not that he had anyone to play them with, either).

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David was surprised when he snapped out of his thoughts and realized Sara hadn’t left with Wallace and Lyle. She was sitting before his open window, staring at him blankly.

“How now?” David said, not fully knowing what he meant.

“You’re weird,” she said.

“I know.”

“That whole floating away thing, though…that could be pretty neat. I mean, if that’s what happened to the twins for real. I could see myself liking it, getting away from…well, whatever. You know.”

“I know.”

She got up and walked off in the direction of the Dairy Queen, and only then did David see the fat white calligraphy on the back of her sweater jacket. It said WORST ENEMY. David didn’t believe it because if it was true, she’d be closer. He’d be there and she’d be closer.