Josh Denslow

Josh Denslow has a short story collection called NOT EVERYONE IS SPECIAL (7.13 Books). Recent stories have been spotted in Catapult, Pithead Chapel, Okay Donkey, and BULL. In addition to wearing matching sweaters with his three boys, he plays the drums in the band Borrisokane and edits at SmokeLong Quarterly. Find out more at joshdenslow.com or on Twitter @joshdenslow.

ACHE by Josh Denslow

I fell in love at age seven. Twice. The first time was with the exquisite pang I felt when I pushed my loose upper right lateral incisor with my tongue. I’d withhold that sweet ache for hours, as if I was the drug dealer and my best customer at the same time. I’d wait as long as I could, yearning for a fix, and finally another push and the engulfing ecstasy. I never wanted to lose that power. But the damn tooth ditched me while I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it didn’t even have the…

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