She crawled up from the dirt at Riverside, dragged herself through Black Creek and shuffled all the way up our hill. Somewhere in the water she lost a shoe, and a finger or two during the climb, but she was still ravishing from the moment I caught sight of her. If I had breath she would have taken it away.

I knew what they said about girls from the other side of the tombstone. Too fragile. Too unrefined. They have no blood, for God’s sake. And I knew they must have said the same sorts of things about us during the day when we weren’t around to hear.

But I looked at her and she looked at me and none of that mattered anymore.

She wanted to kiss me but my teeth got in the way.

I wanted to kiss her but her lips fell off.