A quick dissection: short stories

So recently we have been discussing short stories and what we think the main idea is, the so what's about them, and what the true meanings have been. So the sort stories we are reading are "Fiesta" by Diaz, "Teenage Wasteland" by Anne Tyler, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, and "Hairball" by Margaret Atwood; thank gosh for the "anything you can buy in Barnes N Noble" thing otherwise I would've never remembered how to properly quote those. Anyways the first story that we read was "Hairball". "Hairball" is a pretty interesting and slightly gross story , the woman takes her ovarian cyst and saves it then later goes and gives it to someone but not after putting chocolate shavings on it. She treats her cyst, who she names Hairball, as if it is her child and that it has teeth, nails, toes and fingers. She personifies Hairball into something that she cannot have, something that she feels that the world has taken from her. She's always moving to the next thing, or the next stage, whether that be changing her name or where she is currently living. When Gerald convinces her to go to move to Toronto, she does because she is ready for the next thing. It doesn't take Gerald long to hit on her or rather she hits on him. She is alone and uses her sexuality to hide what she is feeling inside. She hooks up with guys but she can't be with them be because she thinks they are unfit. She wants children and she wants gerald but those are both things she can't have because Gerald is married and she is getting older. This story was mainly a distraught woman trying to turn her life around,to stop being the cold person she was, now she wants love and with everyone being in love with someone else she may not get that. The story i read though , that I found the most interesting is "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" this story shows what happens when teens look for attention in the wrong places, Connie and her mother don't get along but instead of trying to get her mother's love she goes and looks for attention from boys. Arthur Friend, which I find his name ironic because his last name is friend which he has managed to disguse himself as but he's really a predator, finds her and tries to get her to join him. The weird thing is though while he tries to get her to come outside, he never actually goes in after her he wants her to see that she wh really wants to be with him herself, that joining him is where she wants to be. The screen door that separates them is almost like a portal that separates to different worlds; inside being the human world that Connie is already a part of and the outside world being the underworld disguised as heaven. It's like Arnold Friend and Ellie don't really exist this, they are just figments of her imagination, her deepest subconscious, telling her that she really wants to escape this world. Maybe she actually dies at the end and she's having an outter body experience . What does it truly mean to really want to leave the world because you are unaccepted because you are too vain, that you go and construct this whole scene where a guy comes to your house after your parents leave and offers you a ride , then waits for you outside while you try and run or scream for help, feeling like you're being metaphorically (or physically) stabbed?