Chapter 1:
Amber Waves

Well he lit you up
Like Amber Waves in his movie show
He fixed you up real good
’Til I don't know you anymore
From ballet class to a lap dance
Straight to video
And the pool side news
Was that he would be
Launching you

Into every young man's bedroom
You gave it up
On DVD and magazine
You gave it up
A private rite of passage
You gave it up
To every boy's sweet dream
With their paper cuts

You said ‘he's got a healing machine
It glows in the dark, glows in the dark’
You say ‘there's not a lot of me

The click goes off in my head. I feel the shift in my senses. Overdrive.

I look up over the rim of Styrofoam. I see her. Despair etched in every line of her face. Her hands tremble with the weight of the cup, and the weight of her grief. He sits across from her. His expression haughty, but ruffled all the same.

My ears burn from listening. The only thing I can hear over her wracking sobs is the silence coming from him. It’s deafening. She tries to draw in breath. The only word she can utter is ‘why?’ Why is this happening? Why to her? Why now?