卂ᒪρнⒶβέţ 𝔣尺ⓔᵃҜ𝕊

Alphabet freaks trying to figure out a new letter.
There is an actor at the bar.
He played a murderer in a tv show.
The murderer,
is much more famous than the actor.
He is giving advice,
but his side gig is being a property manager at a monthly live in on Franklin.
There used to be a coffee shop on that street where he probabaly took his dates.
Some of them tenants.

If you suck my cock I will take 200$ off your rent.

They would get on his motorcycle and drive half a block up to their building.
She wouldnt want to, but she didnt have a job yet.
She just moved her from someplace in between
where radios dont work.
She needed the money.

After it was over she would go to her studio on the first floor and unpack her things.
Last time I checked she was still trying to be a singer.

ⓈⓌⒾⓃⒼⒺⓇⓈ,⃝ ⓈⒾⓃⓃⒺⓇⓈ

In Los Angeles you can see some strange things.
A gang member is eating a chef’s salad alone talking about “The Bears” to anyone who will hear him.
An Asian man sits four chairs down wearing the gangs sigil, unbeknownst to him.
He works in tech and drives a Tesla. “A Tessie.”
He tells the waitress, “You dont even have to press the brake for it to stop. It just stops. Elon baby!”
When he honks his horn “Drop It Like It’s Hot” plays. He has more money than my entire family combined.

The waitress has blisters. She has three jobs not counting Onlyfans. It was booming during Covid, but now it’s just creeps.
It was always just creeps.
I ask her if I can have more coffee but she doesnt hear me. The ghosts of Beverly Drive have her now.

I’m supposed to be meeting a girl from the canyon whose future lives somewhere in the valley of those hills. In the secret tunnels maybe she will find herself. David Lynch could have a field day in her head.

Across the room a man says, “I expect theater to come back in a BIG way.”

“Oh.” says his friend.

A table of four gays ordered four Oreo shakes as soon as they sat. Doubled down on the theater comment and now they are comparing favorite plays.
I swear I heard someone say Hadestown seriously and the table fell quiet.

I’ve never seen it, but with context clues that might be a faux pas.

More gays just got here.
The Hadestown comment really seemed to dampen the mood.

I try and cheer them up and they just glare at me.

My friend is now an hour late, and if she was on time I couldnt have written this.
Maybe it’s fate.
Maybe I’m always running a little bit late.

The last time I was at this restaurant I was with a girl that I loved.
We shared a BLT with mayo on the side. She prefers mustard.
I think about her a lot. Almost always.

I think her TikTok reposts are hidden messages just for me. But she hates me.
She told me.
Three times.

Sometimes when I look at my hand long enough I can start to see through it.
I start to wonder if other people can see through me also.

Matthew Tyler Vorce is a writer and filmmaker from the desert.