she felt suffocated in the crowded bar, smoke wafting through the full-to-the-brim room ever so delicately, as if it were a noose lacing itself gently around her throat. her fingertips reached up to brush it away but to no avail. tendrils of her long hair worked their way out of her ponytail and down into her eyes as she tried to blink away eight thousand different regrets.

the boy to her left, wearing the yankees ballcap, said something snide and before she could really know what she was doing, she was up out of her chair, her mouth on his. his kisses were laced with too many one night stands and not enough beer. he had too many secrets.

one more drag of a cigarette and she was gone in the night, leaving nothing but a faint trace of perfume.