The press of some boy’s Levi rivets on my hips and liking it. School girl poppets, ******* scraps thrown in our faces. A policeman asking Eris the colour of the wanking man’s pants. Fleshy pink she laughs. Mysteries at 14. Eris knows men with fast cars. Fast hands. We fast forward to forget most bits. Never question why we are taken, we never speak of it. Why bother, my mother’s drunk with the man whose daughter Eris is. Mysteries at 14. I’m told no alcohol. There’s nothing worse than teenage girls disgracing themselves. Stay nice. My father’s charcoal drawing on our wall of the woman with the pointy *******. She is Eris’s mother. Double standard mysteries at 14.
Eris is taller than me, blocks my way with her back as I try to leave. Stay she says. Scent of lemon on her blonde hair, caught up in a ponytail. I flinch as she flicks it to one side, like a stamping palomino. Strands caught by the butterflies pinning the gold studs to her ears. Blonde in my mouth, lemon on my tongue, best friend, girlfriend crush. She turns, dissolute and desolate. Eris says we’re enjoying it, all the mysteries at 14