Back in Town

Sidney moves back into her parents’ house after one miserable semester of college, still licking the wounds her ex left her. She goes to a block party hoping a drink or two might take the sting off. Then Dani walks in and the whole night tilts. She’s radiant, loud, impossible not to watch. They talk once the music thins, two girls who barely crossed paths in high school standing under porch lights. Dani laughs too easily, leans too close, keeps her hand on Sidney’s wrist long after the joke lands. Maybe it’s flirting. Maybe it’s nothing. Sidney tells herself she isn’t ready to find out. She finds out anyway. After that night the texts never stop. Coffee turns into dinner, dinner into nights parked outside Dani’s place, knees touching across the console. Every time Sidney steers the conversation toward women Dani swerves with another story, another grin. Weeks later Sidney wakes to sunlight striping across Dani’s bare back in her own bed, thighs sticky, lips bruised. Dani’s breathing is slow, face pressed to the pillow. Sidney stares at the ceiling and knows this is the exact mistake she swore off—someone else’s secret tangled up in her sheets, someone else’s closed door pressing against her open one. Her pulse still kicks hard when Dani rolls over and smiles like the room belongs to them. She doesn’t move away.