You could wear the same outfit every single day and no guy - who isn't gay - will notice.

I'm the last of the mad ones.

The truth was that she had managed to betray everyone by doing nothing. No one in history had ever done less and yet been so wrong. Not cheating on a non-boyfriend with the non-boyfriend of a friend. The pressure of thinking that one through made her swollen body ache.

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want," he said. "Braiiinnnnssss," we said in unison.

Once again, her parents' problems had run through her life like a piece of heavy equipment, smashing everything in their way.

With that, I splashed some water on my face, fixed on a smile, and stepped out. I would find Jerome. I would make him explain to me what I was missing. We would laugh, then we would kiss with tongue, and all would be well.

It was almost funny. Life seemed downright accidental in its brevity, and death a punch line to a lousy joke.