A submission for my creative writing course in 2018

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Why did she continue to spend her lonely Tuesday nights here? Her "friends" didn't really enjoy her company, they merely tolerated it, and honestly, isn't that a harsher slap in the face than just being ignored totally? So, as usual, she'd excuse herself to the smokers room when she didn't really want a cigarette, but it was a good excuse to get away from them for a moment.

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Thin tendrils of smoke slid down her throat and wrapped themselves around her alveoli like skeletal hands popping bubble wrap. She stared at her own hands, trying to make sense of the lines that were there, not that those lines had done her any favours. Her future had turned out rather more bleak than what had been predicted by those lines as a girl.

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She returned and the party had left without her, of course. But no matter, she easily made friends with strangers, preferred them in fact. Each new face was a new opportunity to be someone different, someone charming, interesting, faultless. And then, when the bottles ran dry they could forget each other. That's how she liked it, these temporary relationships.

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Single malt liquor made her tongue wag in glorious round-about ways, spouting million-mile-a-minute words that fell on drunk ears that would hear everything and nothing.

Fine, if no one would hear her she would resolve to silently argue with herself. She told herself that nobody wanted to listen to her whiskey laden words and that nobody wants to kiss her grey lips because they flap too fast and obnoxiously. And that no one likes a mouth so big that they can see inside their alcohol filled stomach like some boozy, self-hating grouper.

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There's no hope now, so she'll pick some similarly self-hating kindred to share her sheets for the night. Her usual last ditch effort to fill the holes that gape within her. But self sabotage is an artform don't you know? And a hard-learnt one at that.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Original composition for the show Skank-tified

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My parents were righteous, and tried to raise me so

And for a good 11 years, I gave it a red hot go

I sang hymns and read verses, I hoped my faith would grow

But though I tried the spirit died and something grew below

 

I started to find it all incredibly … dull

In fact it made me wanna put a bullet through my skull

I’m so sorry Jesus, you’re just such a bore

So I'll hang up my crucifix and just become a whore.

 

Sneaking boys out through the backdoor, I was a master

Deleting browser history, I’ll bet you I'm faster

My mum and dad became concerned so then they called the Pastor

He tried to get my demons out, oh what a disaster 

 

So my Mother taught me to let the good Lord in,

but Pornhub said say thank you and to always wipe my chin.

So there's a conflict of interest, I wonder who will win?

Well I masturbate, so heaven’s gates will never let me in.

 

Kicked out of home, nowhere to go, so moved into the city,

I found a club not far from there and dolled myself up pretty, 

I got on my knees, I had a crowd to please, and the job is nitty gritty

But it’s quite a task to shake your ass and also shake your titties

Are you not entertained x 4

 

So my mummy and daddy would roll over in their … urns 

To know I get up on that pole and a give the crowd a turn

And the rest of my family on their behalf are quite concerned

But really needn't worry because here is what I’ve learned

 

Don’t walk barefoot in the private rooms, they’re very sticky

And balding men in track pants always smell the worst they’re icky

Slap 'em on the face when they ask to change a fifty 

And the bouncer who works on Wednesday nights - avoid him he’s quite shifty 

Are you not entertained? X 4

 

And you may judge me for my sins of which there are plenty

But I know if god was watching he’d surely through some twenties 

But are you not entertained x 4