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Back A Small Affair Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. Part Two
  22. 1
  23. 2
  24. 3
  25. 4
  26. 5
  27. 6
  28. 7
  29. 8
  30. 9
  31. 10
  32. 11
  33. 12
  34. 13
  35. 14
  36. 15
  37. 16
  38. 17
  39. 18
  40. 19
  41. Part Three
  42. 1
  43. 2
  44. 3
  45. 4
  46. 5
  47. 6
  48. 7
  49. 8
  50. 9
  51. 10
  52. EPILOGUE
  53. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  54. Booklist

Soon, they were all jumping into the ocean, lapping up the salt like dogs. The water, it felt like satin against Odilie’s skin, like the most luscious, transcendent bathwater she’d ever experienced.

She lay down when she stepped back onto the deck without even drying off, the sun baking her skin. She felt a wet, warm tickle in her navel and giggled, her eyes squinting open at Peri licking the salt water off her stomach, the group laughing at her antics. Odilie smiled. She was part of the joke.

“I’m going to go pee,” Peri announced, beckoning Odilie to come with her.

“Go in the ocean!” one of the guys said, but Peri ignored him and took Odilie’s hand, guiding them to the bathroom below deck. She squatted down on the toilet as Odilie gazed at herself in the mirror. Her mouth felt stretchy, gooey and her teeth kept clacking together, rocks sliding, crumbling away, turning to sand in her mouth. She bent over the sink faucet then, gulping down water. She’d never been so thirsty in her life.

“Give me your hand,” Peri said suddenly from behind her, and Odilie took one last gulp of water before acquiescing, thrusting her palm toward Peri, their bodies pressed so tightly together in the tiny niche of a bathroom. Peri’s eyes glowed white light, it seemed, as her fist tightened around Odilie’s hand.

Odilie didn’t realize what was happening at first, her high so buzzingly perfect, that when she saw the stream of blood she thought she was dreaming. She gazed at it, mesmerized, looking at the little rivulets pooling in her palm.

And then, delayed, a smarting pain. She yelped, looked up at Peri, who had a tiny pair of sewing scissors in her hand, to cut off loose threads, the ones Odilie knew she always kept in her purse. Odilie felt her mouth gawping, her own blood like slick salon polish on the scissors’ blades.

“Lick it. Lick your wound,” Peri said, a low mumble. And Odilie took up her hand and obeyed, her tongue smearing the blood, her saliva numbing the sting. “Good girl,” Peri said gently, her eyes dilated, her teeth hard at work sucking on her lower lip.

And she grabbed Odilie’s chin and thrust a kiss on her cheek.

When they went back outside, into the sunlight, the scissors were tucked away, Odilie’s hand licked clean, a minuscule stain on the edge of her bikini bottom the only proof that she had bled at all.

12

VERA

Present day