The Swailing

Prospera: Too Drunk

Porsche and Laser have offered to take us to a party tonight and Porsche has already picked out my entire outfit from the items Sabine selected for me at the garage sale. I take another shower – I can't seem to resist the pull of the luxurious bathroom. This time I lather my hair with coconut shampoo. I think it's the scent Finn's been using and it gives me flashbacks of leaning close to him to touch his tattoo.

I still can't believe I did that. What is wrong with me?

Porsche has offered to do my hair, too, so when I get out of the shower I throw on a robe and call her in to my room.

While she is combing out my hair, Finn peeks his head in and tells me he's going to take his turn in the bathroom. When he closes the door behind him, Porsche sighs.

"Goodness, he is SO choice!"

I laugh and swipe the hair out of my eyes. I try not to sound condescending or jealous when I say, "He's a little old for you. Isn't he?" I say this though I still have no idea how old he actually is, but something about pointing it out makes me feel better. I don't analyze why.

"I know. But still!" She rubs some kind of product that looks like paste into my hair. I have no idea what its purpose is. Porsche starts to divide my hair into sections. "Why aren't you guys together?" she asks. "Or ... are you, and my mom is just making you sleep in separate rooms for our benefit?"

"No, we're not..." I stutter and swallow and blush. "We're not together. Just friends."

"Oh. Okay. My mom is kind of clueless sometimes. She thinks Laser and I don't know stuff. But come on. I mean ... it's not like I'm still a virgin or anything."

I flip one of the sections of hair out of my eyes and look at Porsche in the mirror.

"Wait. What?"

"Please. No one I know is a virgin."

"How old are you again? Fifteen?"

"Fourteen." She touches one section of my hair with a device that dries it and curls it at the same time, leaving my normally straight hair in waves that flow over my shoulder. I study Porsche's round, sweet face in the mirror and try to puzzle together how it's possible that she's had sex already.

"I mean, you're not a virgin," she says, but then sees my expression. "Are you?"

I just stare at her in the mirror, not sure how to answer that.

"You ARE? Aren't you, like, 18?!"

To my horror, I find myself blushing. "Almost."

"How have you not, like, done it yet?"

I shrug, feeling both superior to her and somehow embarrassed at the same time.

"Well, if you want to, I'm sure my brother would volunteer." She makes a face. "Ew. If I were you, I'd do Finn instead. So much hotter."

I'm stunned by the light way she talks about this, like having sex is an everyday thing for teenagers. If any of my friends in Optima had sex, I certainly never heard about it. Of course, it was illegal there and people had to be discreet, but still. I wonder if there are intimacy rules here or if it's just a sexual free-for-all as soon as the hormones start flowing. I thought I was such a sexual dare devil in Optima, but here in Prospera I'm a total prude.

Porsche has finished drying my hair and now has opened a huge suitcase of cosmetics.

"You are super pretty, Ember, but your eyebrows are CRAZY."

I stare at the metal device in her hand. "Don't do anything too permanent, okay?"

"Just cleaning them up."