Scenes from a YA Novel - Haley Nicole

The window clouds with my November breath,

my knuckles raw, speckled with blood

from knocking. I finally got in,

picking the lock with my earring.

I find jewelry that isn’t mine

on his nightstand. He wakes up,

one leg above the covers, and his vomit

half-hidden underneath the bed.

I ask where he was last night.

He asks why I kept calling.

I watch him as he lays there

while I mop his puke,

convincing myself that his drinking

and her visit were my fault.

---

Haley Nicole is an MFA Creative Writing graduate student and an adjunct professor teaching college writing. Her work has been published in Michigan Quarterly Review's Mixtape Disorder Issue, Passengers Journal, Sad Girls Club Literary Blog, and Nora Baskin's blog. Haley writes about her experiences struggling with mental health from untangling trauma, self-destructive interpersonal relationships, and learning how to love herself again. She writes through a lens of self-scrutiny in order for her to learn how to accept and move on from past mistakes. She hopes readers will find empathy and comfort within her work and for them to feel motivated to tell their own stories. She wants her readers to feel acknowledged, their voices heard, and reinforce that their resiliency does not go unnoticed.