"He takes his pills but never takes his medicine"

"You know..." Emma said, sucking lightly on the grape lollipop, "I can swallow a popsicle whole."
The two college aged boys almost dropped their pants right there.
They laughed anxiously and looked expectantly at the other girl.

Rachel scoffed, "I can't even swallow my pills in the morning."

Turn off.

"Sorry," one of the boys kissed Emma on the cheek, "I gotta look after my boy."

Emma smiled through the frustration, "Yeah, yeah, call me when you're alone."

The boys left.

"Don't even start, Em," Rachel spat, "You can't be mad for not giving them what you can't really offer."

Emma threw the lollipop stick in the trash, "But you should feel bad for lying about what you can."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
She carried the silver ring gingerly in her palm, fingers running nervously around the newly waxed edges.
Something about shiny things just made her want to rub mud all over them.

The rain dripped hesitantly on the newly softened spring earth.

Soon the worms will be out. She desperately tried to distract herself.

"Hey!" Shouted a voice behind her, "Hey!"

She pivoted like a ballerina, body rigid, but relaxed.

Cute track team boy.

He stopped mid run and smiled, "Hey girl..."
She smiled politely and continued to stroke the newly waxed ridges.
"So I was wondering, right...uh...if you would want to go see that one movie that's out...you know that movie? yeah....uh...I was wondering if you would watch it with me?"

"Oh...oh....I....oh....not....no, I don't think that...no..." She fumbled with the ring, furrowing her eyebrows in terror.

"Oh...I-I'm sorry...uh...gosh...um...it's raining...I should..." In his shame,  he tripped over himself and fell lightly into her.

The ring flew from her hands and sunk in the fresh spring mud.

"Oh God." He searched frantically for the shiny metal.

She smiled, "No...I'll go with you."

"What?"

"To the movie. I'll go."

She'd never have to worry about the newly waxed edges again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You know why we all need to feel so damn special all the time?"

She blew cigar smoke at his face, knowing full well that her answer to the rhetorical question was inconsequential.

"It's cause we kill things we think are the same," He blinked his eyes through the greasy smoke, "We kill cows, we kill pigs, Hitler killed the Jews. Just cause we figure...or he figured...that they're all the same. Look at what we don't kill. Dogs, cats, kids. Cause we think they're all different--that they're all special. Like, if they were gone then they couldn't be replaced. That's how everyone wants to feel, right? Like the can't be replaced."

Her neon red hair blew freely in the wind as she brought the cigar once more to her pierced lips.

"Like right now. If I told you you weren't special. You'd feel like any other girl could replace you. So you act all different....so that you can't be replaced....but that's not really true, I mean, not really. I've had girlfriends in the past....you're replacing them, I guess."

"Is this your way of breaking up with me?" She sighed, letting the wind carry cigar smoke into her bright red hair.

"N-no...no. You're missing the point. I'm just saying that what make us different. Us...you and me and the rest of the world. What makes us different is what makes us pathetically the same. We're all want to be different because we want the same thing...ya know...we want to feel irreplaceable."

"Or maybe we just want to believe we're different because we're scared to believe that all the screwy things that go on in our heads are normal."

"What?"

She bit his lipsticked mouth.

"We don't want to believe that everyone is as messed up as we are...on the inside... where it really matters...so we pretend to be different by saying our outsides match who we are...but in reality...we're all the same...in the end...we're all humans after all."