Never Thought I'd End Up Here

Good grades, good house, good career, happy marriage. Vows are probably made, and the scene is probably beautiful, a celebration of true love and whatnot against a backdrop of brilliant scarlet and gold banners. Joy had made him mindless, complacent, disgustingly weak; it had shaken loose his heart from his bones and sold him the illusion that there could be something else for him in this life. Then it’ll be class, and then school will be over at last, and then— Everyone’s gathered around the table, laughing so loudly that the paintings left on the drying rack quiver.