The Wire

Mama made her stay in again, confined to her room. How could she possibly understand her desire to see him? She explained to her friends, it was an electric connection, like a movie where the boy meets the girl and he gets her with a single steely blue-eyed stare. There was nothing she could imagine more than being pressed against him under the humidity of that heavy summer sky. She considered a high wire act to escape.

Hubba Bubba

She snuck out again without them noticing. She developed a sound technique that involved taking out her own garbage and eating copious amounts of gum. Mints didn’t work, Hubba Bubba was her trick, it’s fragrance hung heavily in the air, her own personal cloud of sickly sweetness. She wasn’t the only one hiding smoke breaks. She spied on him before deciding the skulker would become a comrade.

Night Car

They had made a pact. If she were ever in trouble, no matter what time, she would come and pick her up. The phone call had seemed nonchalant, few words were exchanged, but it was clear and she fumbled for her keys with her bleary midnight eyes. Through the traffic free nighttime drive her mind wandered to the worst scenarios for a teenage girl at a sleepover. Her mind was put at rest when her pajama-clad daughter got in and announced that she had forgot her stuffie.