Yellow bricks

 Liana Hanokaee Someone passed her the yellow sweater. Everyone else had tried it on So why shouldn’t she put an outfit together? After all, it was just a sweater. The next time she met with her friends they passed it to her again. The fuzzy texture made her delirious and woozy She started to hear conversations about the yellow sweater, see them in all clothing stores, and couldn’t stop feeling how soft it was. When her friends told her she wore the yellow sweater too much, she went and bought her own to share with others. Whether at the store or at a funeral, she wore this sweater even at the men's urinal. She tied her hair back, grew a mustache, and took off the yellow sweater because even she knew that wasn't a prank she could pull.

Liana Hanokaee Sometimes he would drive me to the beach at night without me having to ask. There was something about not being able to see the defining line between the ocean and the sky. I knew he wanted my company when he drove all the way to Malibu. Sitting next to him in his older brother’s old, illegally tinted, Audi, I carefully looked at his military haircut, his faded black jeans with zippers, and the same black t-shirt he always had on. I made a reference to the movie Cars. He had never seen it. “Am I talking too much? The more you talk, the more I get out of you, so it’s good for me. Keep talking”. Was he analyzing me or actually listening? 1:30 am steered our conversations to God, and aliens, and what he wanted to become and what I didn’t know I wanted to become. “The world is an illusion, don’t you think? What are you talking about? This world is real”. 2:30 am he started speeding back like he was Lightning McQueen. It was past the time he would be able to get home and not ...