Count My Lies

by Sophie Stava

If I had the chance to go back, I would have done it again. It was worth it for the way everyone looked at me those two days.

I was too young for detention, so the principal made me write an apology letter to my classmates and Miss Newberry. My mother took away my television privileges for a month. But neither punishment taught me not to lie. It taught me to be a better liar. I didn’t make the same mistakes at my next school.

I half listen, my eye on Harper kneeling in the wet sand with Rooney and Claire. I could watch her for hours. Study the freckles on her nose, kiss her eyelids, listen to her long-winded stories, her breathy pauses, her laugh. She’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. The meaning of my life, every good part of me distilled into her tiny, perfect body.