Sublime

She could crouch on the wind-whipped grass and dig the stones from the ground and fling them down at the suspicious cottiers and their fear of any woman who was not tethered to man or hearth. There, upon the mountain, her difference – no matter its great weight, its sharp and restless ache upon her heart – was, in the face of such unyielding beauty

It struck him that he’d never been so happy, but was wise enough to understand that his happiness consisted largely of hope. Their meeting in the ruin had been intimate and strange, and had sustained his spirit for days; but quickly they’d reverted to their easy pretence of being boys with a mystery on their hands. So they spoke only of where Maria

Sapphists

She turned away from him for a second to get the Vaseline – When she turned back, Blake was no longer smiling. He was staring, pointedly, amazed, at something over her shoulder. His eyes had widened. He was struck still, frozen, like an animal stiffened by a sudden glare. ‘What?’ Melissa said. She was standing again by the window, that window. Babi

The glass wall she’d built around herself was disintegrating – she could almost see it happening; the fragments winking in the light like tiny mirrors.

The world worked differently than he’d ever imagined. People you loved could leave and there was nothing you could do about it. Once he’d grasped that, the inevitability of leaving, he became a little older in his own eyes.

After two weeks, Rachel was no longer so sure. The food bag was still half full. In fact, it seemed a little heavier than it had been when she’d first made her bargain.