“Have you ever seen a girl…” Brae paused, his breath catching. His face darkened slightly, but he looked sly and licked his lips slightly as he leaned forward and finished, “…cry?”

Sol swallowed hard, tensing at the question that was not even directed at him. His quick prayer was immediately rescinded as the other boy immediately noticed his reaction and leaned forward, grabbing his wrist roughly. As his fingers flew back, Brae leaned closer, something hideous in his face revealing the desperation in his request.

“You’ve seen a girl cry?” he asked, his voice sharp with disbelief. “What was it like? Who was it?”

“You’re a sick pervert, you know that?” he retorted, but the memory was springing up unbidden. The others only got the slightest taste of his thoughts, but their faces grew interested and they all leaned closer to him, their minds pushing insistently on his. He sighed in indignation and uttered an obscene and private apology to the girl whose memory he may be about to defile. He carefully picked key elements of the memory and then opened his mind, carefully and with great prejudice. The others descended into his brain like wild animals… He was reminded of children running in a door after playing all day, tracking in mud and shit from outside.

It hadn’t been anyone any of them knew…of that much at least he was certain. He’d noticed her, walking alone, drifting through the dark streets one night after dodging the Curfew. He was actually going home…he had snuck into the complex adjacent to his to use their pool and, on the way back, he saw a figure standing in the path. Thinking it was another Curfew, he threw himself into the bushes, but as the seconds passed, he realized it was a person. The relief he felt in that moment made every boy’s body sag and they let out a deep, collective sigh at his remembered delight.

But all was not well. The longer Sol watched, the more obvious it became that the girl was not alright. She was walking as if she had no idea where she was going, and she was making strange gasping noises as she drifted. She held herself and when she passed his bush, he saw her hands were shaking. He thought she saw him, but if she did, she didn’t pay him any attention. He wrestled with his conscience briefly before sliding out from his hiding place and following her, at least wanting to make sure she got back to her block safe and sound.

But she didn’t go towards the blocks. He grew increasingly confused and aggravated as her path took her in winding circles. She once looped around completely and he found himself face to face with her. She definitely wasn’t alright, her face shaken and empty, and her arms shaking and limp.

Are you alright? he asked.

No.

She excused herself hastily, fearfully, eyes darting around, looking for Curfews and Correctionals as he had ceased to, and she left him. And though he had planned on going back home after that, on the way he saw her again, and had to stop. She was standing in a combination booth. She leaned against the wall nearest him, dimly illuminated by the shuddering bulbs. Her head was hung low and her shoulders shook slightly. She rocked back and forth, and through the door she had left ajar, he heard the most wretched and heart-rending sound he’d ever heard in his life. It took a second for him to connect the dots, but when it hit him, Sol’s legs turned to stone and his chest hollowed out.

She was crying.

A lump formed in his throat and, though he hadn’t intended to let that particular emotion slip, the sharp intake of breath he drew was mirrored by his unwanted mental guests. Deciding enough was enough, he cut them all out, rather roughly shoving them out of his mind and back into their own bodies. One boy stumbled back into his seat, his eyes wide and his face red. A few of them looked around, eager to make sure no one had seen their moment of temptation. Sol returned to his food and they all drifted away from him with their tails between their legs, figuratively speaking, as if putting distance between him and them would make what they just did any less perverted. One boy even slipped out of the room, he was sure it was Brae, to relieve himself of whatever fantasy the memory had inspired.

Sol just sat down and tried to forget. Or at the very least, tried not to think too hard about it.

Of course, Sol had tweaked the girl’s face a bit before he’d shown her to them. He wasn’t that inconsiderate, though he still felt like shit for telling them in the first place. He also hadn’t told them all of the story. Once he was sure they were gone and his mind was empty of anyone but him, he dipped back into the memory. He recalled how he had not turned and left, but had pushed forward. How the door had creaked ever so slightly and treacherously scurried from his hand. He remembered how scared she looked when she saw him and how she drew away, apologizing as profusely as she could around her throat full of shame and horror and terror. A boy, smaller than her and weaker than her, but still a boy, cornering her alone in an isolated place while she was crying...in public, no less! No doubt she’d been terrified, but he had been gentle.

He took particular care to hide his mind as he remembered how soft her skin had been underneath his fingertips or how surprisingly salty her tears had tasted or how quietly she had whispered her name and his. He had held her and she opened him and then they had both walked away, wayward teens dodging Curfew.

When he was done with his little jaunt down memory lane, Sol got up and left the room, his stomach tight and his head buzzing.