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Show 101 So I had a girl roommate, but beyond body and mannerisms, Erin's habits didn't change. She was no tidier than before, did not bother investing in a real bed. The only difference was she now wore a shirt while getting drunk on the balcony. She felt there was nowhere in Utah County for her to go and she made me go with her to the drag shows in Salt Lake City that her friends from the internet had organized. It took her a while to come up with the courage to tell her family, but she finally did. They said, "We'll always love you as a son, but you can't come around here looking like that; it will confuse your sisters. Are you sure you're not just confused yourself?" Erin bought a one-way ticket to New York eight days later. The Freeway The night Erin left Utah permanently, Brad drove her to the airport and I sat in the backseat. Erin had arranged to move into an orange, boxy apartment in Queens with her friend from the internet, "Dresden." She didn't have a job yet but had saved enough money to hopefully get by until she found one. On the way to the airport, we stopped at an Exxon gas station off the freeway and filled up on coffee and some slimy, processed muffins. We had a lot of time before Erin's flight, and the freeway traffic was light. There was a bench on the side of the hill the gas station was built on, and we ate the muffins and drank the coffee there looking down the slope onto the freeway. The meal was quiet. Brad said, "Man, it'll be strange not having you here any more," and Erin |