Fiction

The Never-Ending Adolescence

Unrequited lust, unfulfilled potential, and Instagram stories

Jason Sattler
Human Parts
Published in
22 min readJan 31, 2020

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Photo: Giles Watson/Flickr

I’d been unemployed in Naples, Florida since early January, and there was no prospect of my prospects improving.

Summer was lurking. My sweat glands gushed with anticipation. I fantasized about fleeing to anywhere where humidity, reptiles, and retirees weren’t the official state plagues. But landing an easy escape requires a pillow of cash or credit. I had neither, and I did not expect to ever have either ever again, no matter how many times I repeated the only mantra my mom ever taught me: Money comes to me easily and often.

Then — as she had so many times when I was a kid — Rochelle Gevirtz intruded.

I didn’t know she was on Twitter. Actually, I’d forgotten I was on Twitter. I’d signed up years ago for a video contest that demanded begging for clicks online. My one post shared the contest link, now dead. RIP. I am sure I was the only human who ever noticed that pathetic tweet — until it became the pore that let Rochelle back into my life.

The notification in my email inbox showed me a mention from @RoGe_virtz. I had to decide if this was worth retrieving my Twitter password. The process, which I’d have to learn as I did it, would take most of the five…

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