The sun-bleached pink and green of the 99 cent store sign somehow rose through her squinting eyes. The crease between her curled-mushroom nose and her cheeks was raw from her long red acrylic nails scraping away at the doughy taupe skin. The gummy spaces in between her toes itched from too much bare-footing at the pool and the crusty peaks of aggravated mosquito bites nagged at her hands. Stubborn black hairs were pushing up from under her skin on her shins and she brushed her fingertips across them fondly as they somehow preserved the freedom of summer. As much as her mother told her to shave, she could not think of a real reason to do so.
Her head nestled into her pillow of copper hair against the fawn felted back seat of the Volvo. Her eyes felt salty and stung when she closed them, so she forced them to clamp together like a shy clam and fiercely welcomed the tears pulsing out and wetting her face further in this infernal parking lot. A sickly sweat swarmed and plugged her nostrils as she nuzzled into her own shoulder, preparing for sleep. She heaved up her legs so she could put her grimy feet up on the dashboard. Her chin fit neatly into the space in between her knees.
She could tell it was going to be a parking lot summer. Running errands with the family, running numbers for the office, running miles to train, running the dry cleaning machines- but for all that running, this summer still felt stagnant.
She thought about more exciting reasons for her to be alone inside of a steaming hot car for hours on end. She thought about identity, which she was told on a daily basis was very important for girls her age. She wondered whether she was the only one who loved her legs until she sat down and her thighs flattened out against the seat. She wondered if that was shallow of her to think about.
