She began a cigarette.

She thought about the beginning, when both of them wrestled with being simultaneously addicted to and afraid of each other. The fear was its own pleasure: they both noticed that the adrenaline of their hours apart was worth infinite foreplay.

She watched the first part of the logo turn orange and then grey. The image lasted in the ash for a second before mixing in with the image of the paper.

Later, she began to notice a strange emotional trajectory in their evenings together: the impulse, the sex, and then sadness, or disappointment. The sweat turned sticky and disgusted her, as if it had never come from her body.

The embers met the filter and the taste of foam overwhelmed her. She threw the cigarette to the ground and took out her phone.

Comments

Want to comment? Login or Join

Login Sign up

invitapriore (joined over 13 years ago)

No favorites

Story information

License

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

tags

tawdry cigarettes noir

Prompt

Once, in Beijing, a young girl in a red gown huddled in a doorway.
Prompt suggested by Galen

Contact


We like you. Say "Hi."