The Quintessence of Macy Jensen

“Brett, my man, wake up.”

I opened my eyes with a groan as a headache pulsated my skull, causing my hand to rub at the spot. I looked around the room and noticed that I was laying face-down on my bedroom floor with drool stuck to my mouth. “What the hell happened?” A gruff laugh sounded out into the room and a few more followed, each louder and boy like. “Do you even remember the party last night?”

I sighed as I propped myself on my elbows, staring at the cracking wall as I reeled back into the memory of last night. To my dismay there really wasn’t any memories there, and I knew, from past experiences, that that wasn’t a good sign. “No, I don’t remember.” I passed over the faces of the few friends that lingered in my room. Some were on my computer and others were sprawled on the floor like I, but awake and watching me as I responded. “Well then, I guess to put this lightly…” Kevin, his name was, paused as all the others turned to look with devilish smiles plastering their faces. “You were tonguing Macy Jensen.”

And that’s when I sprinted to the bathroom and got sick right on the tiled floor.



I downed another blue pill as I laced my football shoes up. My mother stood in the kitchen with a grim look on her face and the words she wanted to say at the back of her throat. She had asked me countless times already if I was okay to go to football practice, and to her grief I told her I was fine and just ate something bad. Then she sighed and kept asking, until of course I snapped at her to leave me alone; and that was that. She hadn’t spoken since and I was glad. “Bye mom.” I called once I left the house, tossing my keys in my pocket and making my way to the garage where my car sat idled.

It didn’t take me long to maneuver down the desolate roads to the high school; the football field adjacent to the backside of the bricked building. Being the captain of the team had its perks, for I was, as I checked my watch, a few minutes late but would not get reprimanded, because usually I was the one who would do the reprimanding. The boys were already lined and ready for orders as I stepped onto the dewed field. They all gave me a simple hello as I placed my gym bag next to all the others, letting them all heap into one pile to mimic a black blob.

“Okay guys, I guess we’ll skip the running and go straight to catching. You know the drill.” And football continued on in the fashion it usually did and I was usually bored and usually hung over.


I never liked the normal grind of work, it was boring and I couldn’t stand boring things. And to make my work even more boring, I stood with two children at my feet who were constantly chatting to one another, and who were my bosses children, so I was forced to watch over them “with my life.” “Be quite.” I mumbled under my breath as I shuffled papers that sat on the oak desk. “Leave us alone.” The girl on my left leg said, her thumb leaving her mouth for no more then a second. I groaned and turned my head away as the chimes to the front bellowed. Once I looked up I automatically wanted to look away, but it was too late and Macy Jensen had already noticed me. Luckily for me she didn’t stop by to say hello. She just walked on with a few books already against her sweatered-chest. My eyes, without my brains warning, lingered on Macy as she walked with her knee-high boots and leggings. Her hair fell around her shoulders easily and I cringed when the memory of kissing her flooded into my mind like a stampede. I didn’t want to remember the kiss we shared, I didn’t want to remember that I had felt Macy’s lips against mine, mingling together and leaving her lipstick as a trace of our affair. And I didn’t want to remember that I liked it.