My friend says let’s go to the shooting range and I tell her I don’t know anything about guns. About hunting. About how fun it is to let loose. To pretend we don’t eat microwaveable Mac and cheese for dinner, plugged into our phones, plugged into our Bluetooth headsets. My boss Karen texts me while I’m on the toilet and I answer her. My mom calls me when I’m feeling sad, and I watch the screen light up again. And again. And again. But fuck it, let’s go shooting. Let’s learn how to take safeties off, line up shots, hold the grip tightly, but not too tight. Let’s have sex. Let’s cuddle in bed afterwards. On our phones, together. I’ll watch half a video deconstructing the science of love and send you a meme. You won’t watch it.
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Katherine Schmidt is published in Rejection Letters, Pithead Chapel, Variant Lit, and elsewhere. She is the EIC of Spark to Flame. Find her at http://www.katherineschmidt.com
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image: Aaron Burch
Rejection Letters 