A 90's Friday Night Lights meets Fifty Shades, only the town is the sadomasochist and the two young lovers their pawns.
July Elizabeth Edwards is stuck in the existence her pretentious, rural East Texas town has allotted her. A shift in social statu...
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It was so strange the bubble which we lived in East Texas, nestled behind the Piney Woods curtain. Everything we did, worked towards, or hoped for was for somewhere else beyond these Pines. At least that was our understanding of greatness. Yet, we were contained here, almost suspended in our own little universe. It was often so surreal that it took a great tragedy to shake everyone out of it and help us realize it was real. Even the bad parts. I never could quite grasp something going that wrong. How it happened on their watch, who was responsible, and worse when it was an accident or random tip of the hat.
There wasn't room for that kind of thing in a small town. It always reminded me of a book I read in elementary school about two boys on bikes that go down to the river, and one drowns. I mean really dies. I always remember that feeling of having to flip several pages back to make sure I didn't miss something. I couldn't comprehend that someone would let that happen, not just the boy who survived, but the world or the author or whatever. What was the benefit of learning from this type of tragedy... the fact that they happen? Or, maybe, don't go swimming where you're not supposed to if you're not good at it? Even then the lesson felt daunting.
As a child I couldn't think past what a waste it was and how severe the consequence. The entire honesty and integrity part was lost on me, maybe because the kid who drowned was lost forever in that book. Pretty shitty and permanent lesson if you asked me. I would never knock the brilliant piece of literature it was meant to be... just the way it made me feel. It haunted me. I suppose that was the point.
Years later, when something tragic or too real happened in Pure Pines, I had to remember flipping back through those pages to confirm it did in fact happen. I felt I flipped the pages back to double check when Adeline Morgan was thrown to the wolves in a scandal and called out for being a lesbian, in a school that pretended they didn't exist, so she was forced to get noticed in some other way.
I flipped back the pages when I saw Robyn with Spencer Pearce in the bathroom at the Tomlin party, and again when she told me people knew but didn't care. I felt I had to flip the pages back after Adrian kissed me the way I didn't know anyone could, and then chose someone else, but I didn't do it. Metaphorically speaking, I didn't let myself flip back to confirm it was real. My heart crumbling to pieces was evidence enough.
