I push the Pepsi button. There are a number of clunks from inside the machine. I bend down and look into the little drawer. There is a can of Pepsi waiting for me like there should be. I pick up the can. It feels nice and cold. A cold drink is exactly what you need on a day like this. Some idiots drink tea and coffee when it is sunny. When it’s hot what you really need is a cold can of fizzy drink.
The sun beats down on my head so ferociously it makes me feel a little faint. I pull the ring pull and there is a fizzing sound as the can opens. I take a little sip of the drink to test how it is. When I have confirmed that it is delicious I take a massive gulp. I already feel better, less light-headed, more energetic.
I continue my walk to the park. I think about how all my friends will be drinking beer. They would be having much more fun of they were drinking Pepsi.
II
I grab another beer from the box. We don’t have any fizzy drinks left so I have to drink stupid beer. I flick the cap off the bottle and take a sip. It tastes musty like old books. I grimace slightly. They say you get used to beer and start enjoying it if you drink enough of it but I am in my mid-20s and I still don’t like the taste. Maybe I haven’t been drinking enough of it.
The girls are drinking gin and tonic but they are almost out of gin. They are talking about going to the shop to get more. There is most of a box of beer left so we don’t need any more of that. I think about asking them to buy me a nice can of coke but I do not ask because I don’t want to look stupid. You are not supposed to like coke more than you like beer. That is what my friends say anyway.
III
I press the Fanta button. The clunks inside the machine confirm that the machine has understood my command. I bend down and look into the little slot just as the orange can slides down into it. I pick up the can and open it immediately. I am so thirsty. It is too cold today.
A fizzy drink is exactly what you need on a cold day like this. The cold air always dries my whole mouth out. It is important to stay hydrated.
I continue my walk to the pub. I think I am going to drink vodka and coke even though my friends will make fun of me for drinking a girl’s drink.
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Dominik Slusarczyk is an artist who makes everything from music to painting. He was educated at The University of Nottingham where he got a degree in biochemistry. His fiction has been published in various literary magazines including moonShine Review and SHiFT – A Journal of Literary Oddities. His fiction was selected in Fictionette Monthly Flash Fiction Contest.
Dominik Slusarczyk is an artist who makes everything from music to painting. He was educated at The University of Nottingham where he got a degree in biochemistry. His fiction has been published in various literary magazines including moonShine Review and SHiFT – A Journal of Literary Oddities. His fiction was selected in Fictionette Monthly Flash Fiction Contest.