Bad Guy by Amy Allen

Every town’s got one.

He keeps a beat-up grey Oldsmobile parked at an abandoned gas station in the center of town. No one’s ever seen him drive it—he hovers around it like home base. You remember pointing out your passenger window when you were younger, watching him saunter down the sidewalk as if to a soundtrack in his red sequined bell-bottom pantsuit and wide sunglasses, hair unmoving, waxy and dark. He’s bad, your older brother had announced, your mom’s affirming eyes meeting yours in the rearview mirror, Tommy’s right. He’s not safe. At your high school the boys joke about him. Watch out, they laugh. Elvis might lock you up in his car! The girls call him a creep, spread rumors about what he’s got hidden in his trunk, how he’s kidnapped girls, how they disappeared. All of this talking happening around you, never with you. You are invisible, blending into the background like beige. You can appreciate the dream to become someone else, live a different life. Maybe he’s misunderstood. What does your mom know anyway?

After school you stop at Stewart’s for Twizzlers, and there he is, all laid back in the corner of a booth near the registers, tapping an empty paper coffee cup on the table before him. As you move through the aisles, you keep him in your sight, watch the cashier girls ignore him while he argues coffee should include free refills. When you head to pay, you note his electric blue eyes, his sideburns tinged grey. You one of them Catholic school girls?  He rubs a hand down his chin. You smooth the pleats of your uniform skirt, hand the girl your money. There’s things I could teach you, he offers. Bells jingle as the door opens and three of your classmates walk in, popular ones who fold their uniform skirts at the waist to make them shorter and wear thick, black eyeliner. They see you and begin whispering together. The cashier holds out your change but you hand it back to her. Can I actually get a coffee too? Wide-eyed, she gives you a cup, watching as you fill it with steaming liquid. You look right at the girls from school as you slide into the booth across from the legend, feeling like you’ve finally been plugged in. 

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AMY ALLEN — Amy’s poetry and fiction has been published in a variety of literary journals, and her poetry chapbook, Mountain Offerings, was released in April of 2024. She lives in Shelburne, Vermont, where she is thankful to be surrounded by mountains, water and wildlife, and she owns All of the Write Words, a freelance writing/editing business. Amy currently serves as her town’s Poet Laureate, a position that includes outreach work with local schools and organizations.

Art by OLWYN CARDEW — Olwyn is a rising senior in high school based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She focuses on exploring many mediums in her artwork. She is also interested in pursuing a career in the art field specifically art education.