Dirty Summer

A completed short story · [Pretend-good, aloof girl × genuinely doglike guy] (sharp-tongued girl × unruly dog)

[One-on-one, both inexperienced | forbidden tension | bittersweet flirtation | small-town fiction]

She had no mother. He had no father.

That year, her father brought home the most notorious woman in town as his new wife.

Just like that, she got herself a new older brother.

⋯

A long stretch of filth, heat, age, damp, and noise.

They were forced to live in the same old apartment building, share meals at the same table, and sit in the breeze of the same squeaky old fan, while timidly hating the masks the other wore deep down.

She did everything she could to push him away.

But he never forgot the bowl of rice she gave him when he was eight.

⋯

Summer nights: stifling, damp, and fetid, a filthy summer with its grime laid bare.

The old building could hide dust and dirt, but not a young man's secrets.

The small town could hold thousands of households, but might not have room for two hearts that refused to accept their fate.

⋯

When he was eight,

she only gave him a bowl of rice,

but he became a dog who would follow her for the rest of his life.

That one meal kept him by her side for many years.