THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
by Noah Cicero

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thirteen

Layla is sitting on her couch.

She is sniffing coke.

She takes a swig from the bottle of jack.

She is wearing the same clothes as before.

Her brother comes into the room.

He is a traditional skeezer.

He is wearing a Metallica shirt and has a mullet and tattoos.

“My car broke, you gotta drive me to work,” says Layla’s brother.

“What the fuck happened to your car?”

“You know how I said the radiator leaked. Well, I drank a whole bottle of Jagermeister and forgot to put any antifreeze in it. And well it blew up.”

“Fucking white trash luck! Well let’s go.”

They go outside.

Layla drives a hoopty made in the late eighties. One of the windows is a garbage bag. There is rust all over it.

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