Authors: Brian Francis

Tags: #Humor & Entertainment, #Humor, #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary, #Humor & Satire, #Humorous, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Teen & Young Adult, #Children's eBooks, #Contemporary Fiction, #General Humor, #Lgbt, #FIC000000

Fruit (29 page)

Craig Brown nods, but he’s secretly jealous of my popularity and good looks.

A whistle blows. The game is about to begin! I look over towards the stands and see familiar faces. My mom is there, misty-eyed. My dad is sitting beside her. He’s yelling, “Shake it off, Petey!” in a very loud voice. I’ve never heard him yell like that before. On the field in front of them, Daniela is shaking a pair of pom-poms. I made sure she got onto the cheerleading team.

“Go team!” she yells and shakes her pom-poms. “Go fuckin’ go!”

Suddenly, something catches my eye. It’s the football. This time, I know what to do. I grab the ball and start running in the right direction. If I score this touchdown, I’ll break the high school record. The crowd is on their feet. I can hear their screams and clapping.

I keep running, passing all the players from the other team. They all look like Brian Cinder.

“Eat dust!” I yell as I race by.

Then I start to get the feeling that I’m not running
to
something, but running
from
something. It’s true that the other players are close behind me, but there’s something else. It’s bigger, faster, and darker and it’s something that I know already, something that I try not to think about too often. It’s been following me for a long time now. And if I stop for one second to look behind me, it will trip me and ruin everything. So I don’t look behind and I don’t stop running.

My heart is crashing into my rib cage and I’m scared that the masking tape around my chest will break and then my cherry nipples will come popping out and then they’ll know.

Everyone will see the fruit I’m trying to hide.

I look up to see how far I have left to run and spot someone in the distance, standing between the goal posts.

“What’s in the news?” he asks.

Then I fall asleep.

Brian Francis
was born in Sarnia, Ontario, and currently lives in Toronto.

In 2000, he received the Writers’ Union of Canada Emerging Author Award.

FRUIT
is his first book.

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