The Three Lives of Cate Kay

by Kate Fagan

ordering salad dressing on the side and dipping your fork in it to save calories,

swallowing the tears. I wondered where those tears went. Were they dripping down behind my cheekbones? Tears were meant to drip.

And yet, as far as I could tell, being cool in high school was a death sentence. No pain to fuel you later.

age is a peculiar dysmorphia afflicting all.

“The trick of life, as I see it now, is to make what’s around you beautiful. It’ll grow from there.