Story #5: Puberty

Colleen Mundy
Dr. Tony Barnstone
ENGL 302
March 3, 2009

Puberty
They started out like pimples. Jonathan was at that age. His voice was changing, he noticed girls, his face was breaking out in what everyone thought were pimples. It was understandable, expected. All of the other boys his age were going through the same things. They would laugh at each other at lunch time, leaning over their plates of pepperoni pizza and comparing pimples. Jonathan’s were by far the biggest.
He tried everything. Creams, ointments, dermatologists did nothing for him. The pimples just kept getting bigger. Soon his entire face was red. Then it spread to his neck. The pimples popped up on his forearms and the backs of his hands, they slid down his chest through the strands of hair poking their way into the world for the first time. The red bumps continued down his legs and covered his knees, they invaded the tops of his feet and crept between his toes. Soon he was left to his pepperoni pizza by himself in the corner of the lunch room.
His skin began to feel greasy. It was like rubber. Coating the crimson tint the pimples sent over his skin, his pigment changed to a pale yellow. Teachers didn't call on him in class anymore; he sat alone in the back of the room. His friends wouldn’t talk to him; his differences made him an outcast. Girls ignored him; they didn't know what was wrong with him. They were all repulsed by the protruding lumps that covered his body. They were frightened and confused about the heady scent that came from his burning, bubbling skin. And the pimples, what he thought were pimples, just kept growing. All he had was his plate of greasy, red, pepperoni pizza with the yellow cheese melting off the side of the plate like rubber.