Stealing - Writing Challenge Piece

People were mystified by you.  I heard a girl call you an enigma.  You were hard to know, people said.

I didn't think so.

We were sixteen when we met.  I was sneaking away to smoke and almost stumbled over you.  Your body.  You were stretched out under an awning, sleeping. Your arms were folded under your head.  The length of your neck and the pebble of your exposed shoulder were so white, you glowed.  It was raining and April, the beginning of everything.


I was sent to Beckley Girls Academy for stealing.  A lot of times.  Nobody knew what you were in for, but I did.  You showed me.  Your tongue appeared between your painted red lips and I couldn't breathe; a slippery pink thing, like taffy from the seashore.

We sneaked around at night, padding on bare feet across the ornate rugs and down stone hallways.  Once, you silently opened Sister Amelia's bedroom door.  You wanted to watch her sleep.

Sister Amelia was small and pretty and young, at least by convent standards.  A shaft of moonlight illuminated her through a tiny window near the ceiling.  Little puffs of breath escaped her.  She was so plain and simple in the dark.  You reached for my hand.

That night was the first time I stole for you.  The rosary from her bedside table.  The beads clicked against one another in my hand as I lifted them, and a cold shock of terror ran through me. I felt a throbbing in my thighs, and deeper inside, too.  Something terrible and beautiful was blooming as I pressed the cold silver cross into your palm.

You wore it around your neck, later, while you held my wrists against my bunk mattress.  The other girls were snoring lightly and whimpering in their sleep.  Sister Amelia's cross fit neatly between my teeth; your breasts were full and soft and so white.  I'd never wanted a girl, before, but I understood you.  You were here for stealing, too.


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This post is an entry at Trifecta Writing Challenge. The deal is that you have to write a piece using the third definition of a given word in 33 -333 words. You should give it a try, too and link up here. This week's word is enigma.