Shayla Frandsen
"When She Was Angry Her Stretch Marks Would Shine in the Dark”
And it’s weird as hell, her friends would say, which was surprisingly the most considerate type of feedback she’d ever gotten regarding her shining stretch marks, seeing as how a random sampling of ex- and would be-lovers and former friends had called her names like Freak, Glow Worm, Sun Butt, Fire Thighs (which could be a compliment in another circumstance), Shiny Scars, and Fog Lights, but then again she believed herself to be so malformed that she had a habit of attaching herself to anybody who paid her any sort of attention, which she knew was a problem, and to be fair some of her lovers had really gotten it, like the one who would purposely rile her up and then suction his mouth over the outer curve of her breast so that his cheeks glowed like he was closing his lips over a lit flashlight, or the one who had been arguing with her about whose turn it was to wash the dishes in the sink and when she told him that she’d taken her turn last night white lightning emanated from nearly every corner of her, and he fell to his knees in front of her with a face of awe and said he’d wash the dishes that night, and every night, leave the whole kitchen gleaming, if he could only bask in the radiance and wonder of her miraculous body and why did she ever break up with him, she thought to herself, as she stood in the corner of the club, pinched to the beat of the music so her stretch marks would flare with annoyance and strobe over the sweaty, twisting, swiveling bodies, hands on hips and tongues on necks and hair beating about like a whisk, all which she did for a decent paycheck and her name on the marquee outside the club that read HOME OF THE GLOWING GIRL FRIDAYS TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE LADIES GET IN FREE.
Shayla Frandsen (she/her) earned her MFA in fiction in Utah. She previously earned an MA in English in New York City. Her writing can be found or in New England Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Under the Sun, Blood Orange Review, Literary Mama, Exposition Review, and others. In 2023 she was nominated for Best of the Net and Best Small Fictions. She was awarded first place in both the 2023 Plentitudes Prize in Fiction and the Blue Earth Review Dog Daze Flash Fiction contest.
