Like Clockwork

by Tim Frank

Every Monday at school, Farooq would run my cotton briefs up the flagpole for everyone to salute. Tuesdays he sent photoshopped memes to my class of me and my maths teacher, Miss Davenport, wrestling in leotards and bicycle helmets. Wednesdays he locked me in the chapel and forced me to French kiss the Virgin Mary. Thursdays he hid bloodied knives in my locker, goldfish in my sports bag and eggs in my pencil case. Fridays he strapped firecrackers to my waist, then set me alight by the school lake where sixth formers hid and smoked speed from hollowed-out apples. Weekends I rested, recuperated, and plotted my revenge — because Farooq was nothing if not predictable, and soon enough I’d make him mine.

6S

Tim Frank's short stories have been published in Bourbon Penn, Eunoia Review, The Metaworker, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Menacing Hedge, Maudlin House and elsewhere. He is the associate fiction editor for Able Muse Literary Journal.