But I also loved the waste, the freedom. No one was telling us how to live. We could do what we wanted. Annie took me under her wing and showed me the city I’d been dreaming of—the queers, artists, weirdos. Her world ran hot, and I wanted to be as close as possible to the flames. You only get one life, she used to say, before all our friends started dying, so you better make it fucking count.
