You are the pepper shaker and I am a napkin. We meet before our entrances to “Be Our Guest.” Backstage, it glows red. You hold my hand. I wonder if you will be my boyfriend. You rub your thumb over mine and I see it: the homecoming dance, ice cream after school, you leaning against my locker. We hear our cues. After the number, I find you in the bright light of the cafeteria. We trade places. With my eyes and nervous smile, I shake my feelings down around you. But you turn. Like a napkin, you brush me off.
Kaia Preus is a writer in Minneapolis. Her first book, The War Requiem, was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. Learn more at kaiapreus.com.