Those were the 'ifs' that kept me from making a fool of myself.

It's the face the world sees, the one you can change as many times as you want

I only assumed those dresses were costumes, based on the garish nature of the plumage.

Who can judge the judge?

Even in the slippery blur of heat and arms and noise, Lena affected everything in her wake, a pull as powerful as the moon to the tides, or the planets to the sun. I was caught in her orbit, even as she pulled away from mine.

I stared at the creased map on my wall, the thin green line connecting all the places I had read about. There they were, all the cities of my imaginary future, held together with tape and marker and pins. In six months, a lot had changed. There was no thin green line that could lead me to my future anymore. Just a girl.

Are you accusing me of reading? ~ Ridley