The girls cooed over me like I was their doll. They laughed, but they weren’t making fun of me or nothing. It was more like they were having fun with me. It wasn’t like laughing with lads: they weren’t going to attack me, or put me down. There was something soft inside the laughs, even as they got hyper. I started laughing too, cos laughter catches that way, maybe, but it was like I was opening to the whole room, and the room—with the girls, the laughter, the candles, all of it—was swelling me up, making me bigger than I was. And it was weird, but. I don’t know. I was in serious danger of
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