1. Elegia

It’s June, and there’s a guy—a kid—a boy stuck in a ditch that’s called his life.

Sixteen.

Sad.

Stuck in summer school.

Stuck without a license. Without a job. Without friends.

Stuck in a town he hates and fears. Stuck in a family that’s leftover parts, with a mother who only has leftover love to give.

Surrounded on all sides by those who claim they know him, who claim there’s something about him, who claim this and that. Threatened and watched by unseen strangers.

A boy still haunted by memories of a girl he once knew.

A boy still haunted by memories of all the things he could have done.

There’s a teen who’s supposed to be playing the next track on the next album but instead is stuck repeating the same sad, endless song that keeps going around and around the turntable.

Yeah, there’s that guy. That poor, miserable guy.

But that guy’s not me.