“Do you even like me anymore?”

I had meant to ask if she wanted burritos or Thai. If pizza might make her happy, yes, pizza, with extra olives. I could order in, or maybe she’d want to go out. She had been on the couch with her tablet and her vampire series all afternoon. I was tired of watching the mauve sky fade to indigo out her window, a few anemic firecrackers popping in the street below.

The rogue question slipped out, hung sulfurous in the silence, answering itself.

Janey Skinner

writes, teaches, and putters around in Richmond, California. Her story “Carnivores,” originally published in KYSO Flash, was included in The Best Small Fictions 2016 anthology.

For more of her work, visit: http://writer.janeyskinner.com/