summer

my friends loved summer

bathed in every blistering lush part of it

sweltered in the fruity sun

porcelain dolls propped up by the poolside, virtue written on the tiles

they dove in,

head first

stripped down to their creamy, lustrous bare bodies

i would stand on the edge, peeling away the skin i hadn't removed since the morning

ripping at my flesh like an unopened chocolate bar

i refused to eat

till later when we would lay together, mouths full from laughter

i was cinderella, leaving behind the wrapper