“Booger’s Big Grab” by Scott Kaiser

“Lousy son of a . . . a . . . bitch! . . . He d . . . d . . . deserved it anyway! . . .”

“Where There’s Smoke” by Siobhan Lyons

Stella and Chris were arguing again—something about the television. They made me want to pick it up and just throw it out the window onto the street, Led Zeppelin–style . . .

“Expiration Dates” by Levi Rogers

I light my cigarette lovingly, laughingly, with a light purple lighter. Burn, baby, burn . . .

“Choice” by Narween Otto

“No one else ever needs to know about this . . .”

“The stain will stay.” by Bobbi Lurie

I spill coffee on the bed. The white quilt is stained.

How can I fix this? I tiptoe up the stairs to their kitchen, soak a wad of paper towels in the sink. I go back down the stairs, rub the paper towels into the stain. I scrub and scrub. The sun is rising; the stain is not. I lay back down on the bed. Hopelessness . . .

“Big Nothing” by Andrew Lawler

This is me at fifteen, splayed out on Carly’s giant trampoline—stargazing, helpless, hopeful, smiling through a mouthful of stolen popcorn . . .

“Did I let a demon in?” by Sassi Bhutto

Emptiness walked in uninvited and refused to leave. When? How? I can’t recall . . .

“A Version of Everything” by Kristen Valentine

We decided that one thing we could do with the money is buy a house, so we looked at some houses and it was weird and to offset the weird we got tattoos . . .