The Misfortunes of Lolita

04 | when lolita sang

THIS IS AN UNEDITED AND SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE MISFORTUNES OF LOLITA. I AM PUBLISHING IT IN FALL 2021—PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON IG @/ls.akhter and GOODREADS (L AKHTER) TO STAY UPDATED. I am so excited to share TMoL with you again.

CHAPTER 4

"It was strange and new and scary. In his arms I found a feeling of peace that I could not find in any holy book."

-Lolita's writing journal

When Lolita's arms wrapped around Frank, he thought of his parents, strangely.

Was this how his father had first felt when his mother was in his arms? Was this how he'd felt? Did he think about a thousand rockets exploding into the air? Did he breathe in and out like he couldn't get enough of her? Did he also close his eyes and hold her closer?

Because that was what Frank was doing.

Lolita's breathing was hostile, like her body was fighting with her mind and losing. She shook in his arms like she had just come back from battle, and Frank had trouble breathing too, but for entirely different reasons.

"I'm sorry," Lolita whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Hey," Frank said. "It's okay."

"I'm okay," she said, but didn't let go of him. And then she laughed. "God. I'm okay."

Frank knew he wasn't a bad looking guy.

But he knew that he looked like shit today. His hair was uncombed, and he hadn't shaved this morning and his hands were kind of shaky on Lolita's waist. He wasn't on his game.

And yet. And yet when Lolita leaned back and smiled at him shakily, he didn't even think about anything but her smile. He didn't think about the world. Or the weather. If a plane crashed beside him right now, he wouldn't care.

Lolita pulled away, standing back. "Um," She seemed to have trouble looking at him.

He had no trouble looking at her.

"Come on," She said at last. "Let's go home."

Frank threw the black coffee away in a trashcan, and handed Lolita her cup of hot chocolate. She took it gratefully.

When they walked back home, they didn't say a word to each other about anything important. They spoke of the clouds and Frank mentioned how the football team was filled with idiots, to which Lolita laughed. Lolita said that her social science teacher was really into Sigmund Freud, and Frank laughed.

They didn't even notice. But they walked much closer to each other, shoulders and arms touching, that afternoon. This was the beginning.

"Frank," Cora coughed from the other side of the call.

"Dude," Frank said. "Are you dying?"

"Shut up," Cora laugh-coughed. "I miss you, you idiot."

"Cool," Frank grinned, even though she couldn't see him. "That's cool."

"Whatever," Cora said. "Hey, I heard you got a crush on some girl?"

"She told you," Frank said, putting his head on the wall. "Mama's so crazy."

"Who is this Lolita?"

"It's just -" It's just some girl. That was what he was going to say. But then, almost as if someone had turned a switch on inside his head, he thought of the girl. He thought of The Girl. He thought of his dream girl, and how his dream girl had a hot body and blond hair and looked a lot like Kate Upton.