Old Enough

by Haley Jakobson

When she smiled, soft creases formed around her mouth, which made me think she had done a lot of smiling thus far in her life.

Boys didn’t flirt with you a lot then. Which was stupid and unfair but one of those things decided in the sixth grade by a hierarchy of greasy, sweaty, prepubescent boys, and somehow it was etched in stone, permanent until graduation lifted all of high school’s curses and reality could be restored.