It might be nice, she thought, to never leave her house again. She dropped them both into the cart. With her hands on the handlebar of her shopping trolley and the fluorescent lights giving her a headache, isolation seemed an attractive idea. She remembered a recent dream where she had walked into the ocean. Fragments of her unconsciousness, a white nightdress, the starless sky, and the dark waves lapping at her feet.

Steering towards the check out, she pushed on.

The teenage girl behind the check-out till had green hair. The two of them exchanged tense smiles and the woman looked away, wondering if the girl’s mother had been put through hell. If that was what motherhood meant.

There was a smell of wet dirt and school lunches persisting in the air. She was sitting beside the window, as always. You sat on the side of the aisle. It meant that the brown birthmark below her left eye was invisible until she turned her face towards you.

[…]

And when she asked if you liked the boy who lived down the road you said “No.” because it was the truth.

“Who do you like?” Her ponytail flicked at the sharp turn of her head.

“Someone.” Heartbeats had never felt like this before.

Wei crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Have you ever been stung by a wasp?”

“No,” Tate admitted, frowning in a way that made him seem more attractive.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Wei whispered.

Tate slid his pale hand around the skin of Wei’s waist. “I didn’t disagree with you, it was just unexpected.”

I felt my fingers thrum. It could have been the alcohol, the pounding music, or the way she smiled at me. 

When my want for her took over me, I pushed through the crowd. Pounding music echoed in the club bathroom. Our eyes met as someone pushed past, eager to reach a mirror. 

She was inviting, with dark eyes and a wicked smile, lipstick smeared at the edges of her mouth.

I reached out.