Mom prayed that the little brother or sister in her belly would be better than me and I get why because I have more of my dad in me than my mom and unlike my dad, I’m still here, reminding my mom of him, which is why my right eye hurts, and when Ms. Cahill asked me what happened, I told her got into a fight after class, and when Officer Terrance asked me what happened, I told him got into a fight after class, because the police make everything worse, like the first and second time they took away dad after him and mom had too many beers and they stopped using their words, like Ms. Cahill tells us whenever the boys in her class are about to punch each other over a bad lunchroom trade or spilled chocolate milk, and I tried telling mom to use her words once and that’s how I got $1.00 from the tooth fairy, so I learned to keep quiet, even if she asks me how was school today because she’s looking for a reason, any reason to erase my existence so when that little brother or sister is born, they’ll be an only child, so I keep to myself and keep getting into fights that never happen so I have something to tell Ms. Cahill and Officer Terrance when they asked me what happened so when my little brother or sister comes into this world, mom will keep having someone else to blame when they do something wrong.
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J. Bradley is the author of Teenage Wasteland: An American Love Story (WhiskeyTit Books, 2020). He cartoons on Instagram at @questionabledecisioncomics.
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image: Alan Tenhoeve
Rejection Letters 