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Sixteen
BEFORE
Lily
As I zipped the silk mini-dress up my belly and over my lace-clad breasts, I imagined Jacob coming to the house and meeting my parents. Him, dressed in a button shirt and holding a rose. My parents, delighted to meet him.
Dad would shake his hands and quiz him strictly. Warn him to bring him back home before midnight. Mum would smile, waving at us, tell us to have a good time as Jacob zooms down the street in the yellow Mercedes.
I opened my eyes, chided myself for imagining the impossible. My parents would not encourage me to bring a boy home, it's a taboo. That would mean encouraging me to fornicate and have illegitimate babies (their words, not mine). Any boy Luc and I date would be secret and paraded to our parents as a casual, nothing-more friend until we are ready to get married.
Krystal slinked into my bedroom, watching me with orb-eyes and open mouth.
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