My mom always used to say it. Use your common sense. He don’t have any common sense. No one in America has their good common sense.

I didn’t really know what it meant. I always just thought if you didn’t have it, you were stupid. So I’d say, Yes, mom. Yes, mom. Yes, mom.

I think I figured out five years ago…was it that long? It was five years ago that I brought Garrett home. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea. His closet was strictly black leather and silver chains, and I’d never such a big motorcycle before. I suppose it was infatuation that got me to take him home. Just like it was infatuation that got me to believe the black eyeliner in his dresser was his sister’s, and that he loved me, and that Rebecca Wells was his cousin.

He rode up on his motorcycle, revving the engine just like I liked, and my older sister was already giggly like a maniac. She went upstairs, still laughing, and when I asked why she said Mom is so going to kill you.

It was silly, and I told her so. She rolled her eyes and went to her room. Probably to IM her friends and get high, though I’d never say it to her face. Once I did, though. She shut herself in her rook for days and didn’t talk to me for a week after that, and mom grounded me for being rude.

Garrett walked in, kissed me, nodded to my mom with a quiet Hello. She smiled and my heart plummeted. Mom never smiled at my boyfriends, and this smile didn’t look right. Didn’t feel right. It seemed all through dinner Garrett said the right things, but that smile just kept getting bigger and bigger and by the time he left I couldn’t hold it in any more.

Why’re you smiling like that? Huh? She broke down laughing right then and there. What is it?

Here I thought you had common sense. Want my advice, use it. Bring him back if you think he’s good for you.

I didn’t get it. I got straight A’s, my report card was the epitome of perfect child. I was smart, so I couldn’t have been stupid. Then I really started thinking about common sense, and Garrett, and mom, and what my sister said, and then even more about Garrett.

I never brought him back.