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The Clinic, Bri Wilson

The Tuxedo Archives

“What are you here for?”

Jeanette glanced up from her clasped hands. The questioner - a middle aged woman wearing a kitten sweater - stared at her expectantly.

Jeanette spun the ring around her fourth finger. “To forget,” she muttered. She should have taken it off.

The Shattering, Bri Wilson

The Tuxedo Archives

I’m dead. But I’m still here. My soul got left behind. I didn’t believe in souls but now I have to and

I don’t remember when I was last alive. My memories have been blurred, shaken, chopped. I can’t recall how it ended, there was a lot of pain, then it stopped. Suddenly.

(how did I die.)

Marilyn's Friend, Nancy's Kaddish, The Dispossessed, Valerie Silver

The Tuxedo Archives

My friend Marilyn has a girlfriend, Roaslind, who converses regularly with her late mother, but only while driving alone in the car. The chats are usually brief, slid in-between runs to the bank or the grocery store. Rosalind checks in with her mom about her day just as she always had, updates her on the latest goings-ons, asks for guidance when she needs it. Often, she gets answers. What is most remarkable to me about these conversations is how routine they have become in Rosalind’s life. She has found a way to accommodate the loss of her mother while continuing …

Monologue, Carina Romano

The Tuxedo Archives

I had to leave 'em, man.

It was s'posed to be a onetime thing-- one deal and it's done. We just needed a little extra cash, man, but it went so wrong. She had a gun man! A gun! She couldn't pay-- we told her to hit the road, but she wouldn't go, dammit, she fucking--

Kiss Me, Aiyana Ross-Beck

The Tuxedo Archives

It was the last weekend of the year and this party was in full flow. Beer pong, quarters and stupid card games were all going on in the different rooms of the house. Maia was alone wandering through the party until she see saw a girl dancing the middle of the floor. She was brunette, tall, and obviously drunk. She was dancing by herself to a Zedd song. Shaking her hips to the beat and to constant crowd encouragement. As Maia stood watching the girl she became memorized. The girl looked in her direction flashing beautiful green eyes and a …

I Cannot Make This Story Come Out Right, Kevin Coates

The Tuxedo Archives

I cannot make this story come out right. I walked in and he was dead. Dead is dead. Nothing I said or did at that moment could change a single thing. I could wish it; I could regret it. But I could not change it. He was dead on the floor, looking like he was uncomfortably asleep, stiff. He did not have on his favorite shirt. There was a small spaghetti stain under his left pocket, and I knew he probably hadn’t even seen it. How distressed he would have been to die with a spaghetti stain on his shirt.

Drink And The Devil, Richard Clark

The Tuxedo Archives

When he was twenty-eight-year-old the man began to have a recurring nightmare. He was on the London Underground with his wife, a little before Christmas. Lunch at Simpsons on the Strand had been followed by shopping at Harrods and Selfridges. They carried big bags of gifts and tasteless tidbits wrapped in cellophane and colored ribbon. They were happy, not a care in the world. As the train trundled along the tunnel beneath the Thames, the wife said she could hear the sound of rushing water. “Don’t worry,” the man told her, “the train is watertight.” They sat quietly but the …

A Day In The Life Of A Sales Associate, K. Michelle Sellers

The Tuxedo Archives

That moment you looked like Reese Witherspoon. You walked around, carrying many items in your hands. We went towards that hallway, the mirrors, the hot lights…fluorescent in fact. You kept trying on the outfits…that one in particular. Black slacks and the white button down shirt. What is it when a woman wears a white buttoned down shirt? The necklace you wore to accentuate it made everything flow...

-Story excerpt-