When We Were Girls
Published in The Stoney Collection Vol. II
It was just by chance that I noticed the boy putting up the poster. I had glanced up from my book and over at my brother. His head was down, hair falling forward over his brows. He had the tip of his pen to his lips and I could tell he was reading to himself from the open notebook as he mouthed the words ever so slightly. That’s when the door opened. I looked towards it and the boy came in, nodding at the barista as he pulled the rolled-up poster from the limp pile draped over his shoulder. Delicately, but deliberately, he pulled the backing off with his teeth and, with his free hand, pressed the sticky side against the wall. That was it. And just as fast, he was gone, back outside to the overcrowded footpaths drenched in a heavy heat.