I Don’t Want To Hear About It
An excerpt from “Every Time I Didn’t Say No”.
I am fourteen and today, John, Lucas, and Sean, all members of a local band everyone believes will be famous, are visiting. We are in my room and John wants to pierce his eyebrow and my nose. I burn the pin with a match and hand it to him.
“Thanks,” he says, walking to the full-length mirror.
We gather round, leaning in as he presses the pin into the flesh above his eye.
“Ugh,” he says. “It’s so thick.”
“Of course it is,” says Lucas. He’s the tallest, with long, fine hair already dappled with flecks of gray. “A pin is not the best way to do this.”
“Whatever, dude,” replies John, pushing harder.
Blood oozes from the brow and I grab a sock from the edge of my bed and hand it to him. Without glancing, he wipes the blood, which continues to flow.
“Dude,” says Sean.
John pushes harder. “It’s almost there,” he says. Blood forms separate trails down his face, dripping into his eye.
“Let me try,” Lucas takes the pin and presses until a hard snapping sounds, like a lid clapping onto glass.
“Yes! Bro, thanks!” The left side of John’s face is covered in blood, safety pin…
