“Be my girlfriend,” he thuds.
It’s 5 AM and I’d think I was dreaming, except the waitress heard us. She was laughing, and not on the inside.
“What does that even mean?” I laze. I don’t mean to be all 500 Days of Summer but the truth is, I need to stall.
“Don’t play Philosophy Major,” he snaps. Actually, I studied art. Actually, I can bullshit way better than those metaphysics kids. “You know what I mean,” he continues. He tugs on his t-shirt. I think he only wears one, but maybe he has multiples, like Superman. “A girlfriend. She should be cool, and she should get me, and she should be really nice. She should be you, maybe.”
Laughter behind us. The waitress. I order Lo Mein Then I look out the window.
Here’s what my guts do: They splurge on pink and purple slime, and churn the threads of glee and “gross!” into a sticky knot that scrapes above my ribs. I can feel rainbows and hearts and sunshine jabbing into my stomach. I can feel hands on my thighs even though I’m twisted up. And the happy and the horror zip themselves together and finally fold away.
Here’s what my face does: It hatches into a daylight grin and a stream of laughing air. I learned how to do this when I was fourteen, but as I grew up, it got harder to tell when it was fake. I’m not grown up yet. I shouldn’t have just typed that. Anyway.
“I’m tired,” I hiss. “But you’re funny. Can you pass me the hot sauce?”
We live a block from each other. We take separate cabs home. I sleep dreamless, and with my fingers in my hair.
[AURELIE BIDERMANN - AM I THE IMAGINARY SOCIALITE?]