Extraits

I finally got the clasp and let the topaz teardrop dangle, touching it lightly with my fingertips as I stared into the mirror. Sunlight streamed in through my bedroom window—God, what I wouldn’t have given for a quick smoke before heading off to be Barely Achieving Student on Parade—and reflected off the facets of the gem and onto my face. Faint blue starbursts caressed the scar on my cheek, moving when I moved, swirling and blending with brown and peach, the colors that reminded me of heavy hearts and nostalgia. The same colors I always saw when I looked too closely at my scars. Colors that made me think of Dru.

Would Dru have come today to see me graduate? Doubtful. He wasn’t the type to sit in a crowded auditorium with a bouquet of roses in his lap. He was more of the type to meet you in the basket of a hot-air balloon with a bouquet of roses and tickets to a Vegas show. I guessed. The truth was I didn’t know exactly what type of boyfriend Dru was, because he and I had never exactly gotten to that stage.

The first thing she needed was a shower. A hot one. So hot the mirrors would become fogged and the towels would feel dewy and opening the bathroom door would be like stepping into a refrigerator. Her feet would be bare. And she would walk from the steaming water to the sink without wrapping a towel around herself like armor. She’d dreamed of that shower—literally dreamed of it—last night. Like her brain just couldn’t wait to wake up and make it a reality. The shower. Right away. First thing.