by Aaron Sandberg

The summer you would not stop spinning the Dookie CD, the rest of us tried to escape. Noah and I played the prank on the road trip: you sat in back belting every song speeding past mile markers when he yelled Enough! and ejected it, tossed it to me in shotgun where I switched it with a blank hidden in my lap and Frisbeed the decoy disc out the cruise-controlled Honda. Your scream-singing slid to a one-note screech.

God, I loved you.

I would not stop loving you even after you learned the trick and hated me through the fall.

Aaron Sandberg has appeared in McSweeney’s, Maudlin House, Rust & Moth, HAD, The Offing, Asimov’s, Phoebe, Lost Balloon, Flash Frog, Phantom Kangaroo, and elsewhere. He’s a multiple Best Microfiction winner (2024) and a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Dwarf Stars nominee. Find him—and his writing—on Instagram @aarondsandberg.