Slobber Excerpt-7-14-2008

So Slobber walked the school hallways, head down and eyes averted. He closed off his ears to all voices but the ones within his own head. He felt only the rough fabric of his coveralls and the soft, worn feeling of his Highlander t-shirt. He smelled the cloying scents of flower and fruit enhanced perfumes worn by the girls, the speedstick, the oniony smell of armpits, and the everpresent smell of testosterone. It all blended with the smell of stale mopwater infused with ammonia and a sour mop wetted too many times, left to dry in a heap in the corner of his “building engineer” closet. He tasted the everpresent overspice of the previous night’s microwave dinner and the blood from grinding his teeth to the point of damaging his gums. He only wished he could turn off his sense of smell and taste and touch as easily as he could sight and sound, but was left with the attempt to ignore instead of push away.