returning to school is like
being dipped in cold water
Mel is already consumed with
plans for prom
which is months away
I almost envy that she can
focus so completely on having
a great senior year
while I
and others
are simply trying to survive it
so instead of Mel
I talk with Angie
and bring her up to date
with all that’s happened
she congratulates me on my
third place finish
and listens with horror
to my run-in with Ethan
she shakes her head and says, “Your life is like a movie.”

one that I would like to turn off now and then,
but still
if I traded in the bad, would I lose the good as well?

Angie tells me she still has not decided
what she will do about the baby
but that her parents
have gotten over the shock of it all
and that Jesse isn’t the same anymore
and she wonders if he will stick with her
if she decides to keep it

to this
I don’t know what to say