THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY
I'm a flake. Make plans with me at your own risk because I'll inevitably let you down. You can count on me arriving no less than fifteen minutes late to meet you but that is, of course, if I show up at all. I do this because I am inconsiderate and don't appreciate you or your time. If you count on me to be somewhere at a specific time, I'll fuck it up and ruin your whole day. You may think I'm exaggerating for dramatic effect, but consider yourself sufficiently warned. All of this may sound hard for you to believe - I know it shocked the hell out of me when I heard it.It never occurred to me that I had this reputation or that for the members of my family, it was a long and widely held belief. Not because it wasn't like them to talk behind my back - after all, I've been a member of the Gillis family for 27 years and know that's how we operate. No, I just thought I was boring and my life too uneventful to have cultivated an M.O. To be honest, I didn't think they had enough raw materials to work with. Sure, I spent the better part of my teenage years holed up in my bedroom listening to Nina Simone and Joy Division, venturing out only to eat and go to school, but was that so uncommon? Maybe, but since I had no friends at
I circled around the small lobby looking at the various posters advertising upcoming releases and cult movies they screen at midnight, then stopped at the counter to read the current schedule. If you had a particularly bad day and wanted to call your best friend to bitch about it, you would adopt an English accent when repeating what he said that made you upset. It was chilly outside as I made my way to the St. "But I waited for the train for twenty minutes, I forgot it was a holiday and-" "It doesn't matter; you weren't here at 12:15. I left my apartment at 12:00 thinking that I just might make it on time or worst case scenario maybe five minutes late. Generally, I stick to the basics but some of the more experienced and observant of us tweak their portrayals to deliver truly uncanny performances. Do you want to go in and see if it's her?" "Did she seem mad?" I stared at the guy as he shook his head side to side and considered for a second that it might be Vanessa. This morning my sister Vanessa called and asked if I wanted to go to the movies and after looking in the paper and deciding what to see, we agreed to meet outside the Coolidge Corner Theatre at 12:15 to see the 12:30 show. I was surprised at the lack of expression on her face. If my oldest sister frustrated me with a sly, passive aggressive comment, the incident could be summed up with a simple "she was just being Theresa" to elicit a knowing nod or a sympathetic roll of the eyes from my listener. Maybe we subconsciously use it as a tool to differentiate ourselves from one another by recognizing our individual identities because in a large family, people can get lost. Every family has their bonding techniques. I walked to the end of the alley and kept a lookout for Vanessa.
Common topics in this essay:
Joy Division,
Motorcycle Diaries,
Beacon Street,
I'll I'll,
Harvard Street,
Circle She's,
,
Oh Meg,
I've Gillis,
Corner Theatre,
return ticket,
trying teach lesson,
decided wait,
minutes late,
lived eight,
teach lesson,
ten minutes,
waiting outside,
trying teach,
street walked,
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Acceptance Essays
