Chapter 31

“Where are we going?”

“I need a smoke,” she replied, her tone strange. We stepped out into the street and I followed her down the cobbled path toward a completely empty alleyway, pitch black and unsettlingly quiet. The only sound was her heels slapping against the ground. I took in a deep breath of fresh air and waited for it to hit me. I expected the air to pull me back together. My heart was still beating far too fast and my ears were still ringing, every inch of my body feeling more alive than I had ever felt before.

In silence, I handed her the packet of cigarettes from my pocket and she lit one up quickly. I watched her take a long, drawn-out drag, almost as if her very life depended on it. She sat down on the ground and despite my normal reservations about sitting on disgusting alley streets where God knows what happened in the past, I followed suit, settling down next to her. She watched me intently.

“Alex,” she asked, two drags later, “do you like girls?”