By Eric Smith

Her heart jumped as she heard her father's truck droning closer on the driveway. Without panicking, she stacked the magazines in the drawer as she'd found them. In the living room the Ice cubes in her unfinished coke had melted. She sipped the watery pop, trying to keep her heart from beating into her throat as her father stumbled up the steps. She smelled his breath across the room. He stared at her fine legs, the bleached bangs, the sullen mouth. He noticed the blue make-up on her eyelids. "It was time she got a job," he thought.