When she swooped up, her eyes landed on Odilie, who was now busy staring at her own reflection in the mirror, her eyes averted from Peri’s. Odilie used to see a lot of function in her body, the way it took her from place to place, how it allowed her to see and smell and be in the world.

But standing next to Peri, she felt more than naked, like her skin was being stripped away, like her bones were wrong, in the incorrect places, like her face was wide and featureless, haphazardly stretched over her skull in a misshapen, formless blob of flesh. She felt uneven somehow, wobbly in her own disjointed body. She leaned into the mirror, touched the bump of her crooked nose, took her cheeks in her hands and rubbed them, as if that would produce collagen. She wanted to melt it all away, to take her nail scissors and cut away all the extra skin on her face, her thighs, her arms, her stomach. Next to Peri, she hated the way she looked in space, the amount of space she took up, like she was an extra chair at a table that only seated four.

She noticed Peri watching her watch herself in the mirror and immediately backed away, grabbed a towel and wrapped herself in it. “You know you can get anything fixed these days, if something bothers you a lot. People are such naysayers about plastic surgery but if it’ll make you feel more confident, then why not?” Peri said, stepping into the bedroom to slide on some underwear, a flimsy lilac thong that only accentuated her tanned, toned, buttery buttocks.

“Have you?” Odilie asked. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her until that moment, that Peri’s physique could be anything but natural. She stared at Peri’s chest as she asked it, her brown nipples small and hairless, little chocolate morsels nestled into the large, firm, upright breasts. Everything about Peri seemed drawn, sculpted, no mole out of place. The symmetry of her was astounding.

Peri shrugged. “Here and there. Just some tweaks. I have a friend who’s a cosmetic surgeon. He gives me discounts. I wouldn’t worry about it unless you’re serious. You’re cute as you are, obviously.” And Peri slipped into her sundress, a diaphanous aqua number, and let the subject drop as Odilie stared at her friend’s silhouette in the dress, the sun filtering through it from the open window, her breasts nearly visible.