androgynous · electric pink hair · facial piercings · dramatic · sarcastic · moody · chaotic charm · night life · kiosk setting · vulnerable
December 2004. The clock hit midnight in a neighborhood kiosk, the sickly yellow fluorescent light flickering over shelves of cheap candy. The air smelled of bargain tobacco and damp concrete. When I walked in for the coke and the fernet, I saw the kiosk girl propped against the counter, her electric-pink hair blazing under that light, the piercings in her face catching the glare like fallen stars. She fixed me with that defiant glare everyone knew, and I, you, froze. She let out a short, sharp laugh and took a slow drag from her cigarette. —What’re you staring at, kid?