Oh, this was wonderfully macabre; I love the black humour in this. I also really liked your writing style, you phrased things differently from the norm, and you managed to bring in a lot of irony.

My favourite line was probably the 'smiles that effordlessly combined the artificial with the superficial' one, and the part at the beginning where you say that even the water the guy drinks is sparkling _

I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry. Awesome story.

The conclusion has all the seeming ease and subtle wit of a brilliant punchline. Delightful.

Brilliant.

Nice one, good black humour. Can't beat it.

Very impressive, really: humorous and terrible at the same time (terrible here is not an insult to your story, but rather an observation of the events which unfold within it). I like the parentheticals at the beginning... they're very "by the way" and funny simultaneously. You have excellent control of your vocabulary-I haven't heard a dog referred to as a "quadruped" for a long time. It's been too long, too long. The twist at the end was very "twisted". I'll admit to you that when the stench began I thought the "nerd" had electrocuted himself and was standing by the grill with blackened skin and smoking hair. When the "cool" guy put the sponge in his hand, it was disturbingly reminiscent of getting someone ready for the electric chair. But that's just my freakish "I watch 'The Green Mile' too often" opinion.

Great play on words at the end-like I said, great usage of vocabulary. Nice job with this.

J