Page 12 of Sing it, Sam

“Twenty-three.”

“Cool.” Sam takes another bite. His hand stiffens. His face contorts. A groan twists his lips. The sandwich falls to the ground and onto my mammoth-sized handbag.

“Are you okay?”

“Faaaark,” he says, rubbing at his right wrist and gawking at the splattered food. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry. It’s cool.” I clean up the mess and take a tissue from his bedside table to wipe the smeared mayo from my bag.

“What do you keep in that thing? It’s huge.”

I throw the tissue in the trash and open the bag and peruse the contents. “I dunno. Stuff? Headphones, three different types of mints, a small jar of Nutella, a heap of lip glosses and a Wonder Woman costume.”

A chuckle rumbles up his throat. “A Wonder Woman costume? What for?”

My lips pull to the side. “You never know when you might need it.”

“No, really. Why do you have it?”

“The council has their annual fancy dress fundraiser this weekend. Superhero theme this year. Got it mail order and picked it up from the post office on my way in this morning.”

“Hmm.”

A long pause stretches between us. I’m usually a bit of a chatterbox, but right now, looking at Sam in deep thought, staring at my face, I’m mute.

“I like it when you wear the cherry lip gloss,” he finally says. “Like today. Suits you.”

He what?I clear my throat. “Oh. Thanks.”

“How come you always wear it on Fridays?”

“You’ve noticed?”Clearly. Duh.

“You’re more interesting than the four walls in my room. So, what’s the deal?”

“I have to wear the same old boring navy uniform in here, so lips and hair are my only options to express myself.”

“Mondays you always wear this dark-brown colour on your lips. Makes you look kind of goth.”

“I choose my gloss colour according to mood. After spending most of the weekend outside, Mondays kind of suck. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are more beige and blush tones, Thursday I wear whatever I can get my hands on first, and Fridays I wear cherry, because I’m excited. TGIF. Two days off to do whatever I want.”

“And what does that involve?”

“I have a veggie garden that I’m kind of having success with. I like to kayak down near the falls, go to the movies. Whatever.” Whatever, meaningtrying hopelessly to write a romance novel. I’ve got a better chance of publishing a colouring book with the amount of words I have down. But then again, my drawing abilities didn’t improve much after primary school.

“You live by yourself?” he asks.

“Yup. I have a little house down on Pope Street.”

“Does that get lonely?”

“Not really,” I say with a shrug. “I enjoy my own company. I do talk to myself a fair bit, though, so there is that.” I make a circular motion with my finger, drawing circles beside my ear.

Sam smiles, and it warms my heart.

“No boyfriend then?” he probes further.

“Nope.”

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