Hot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman

Author:Abigail Ulman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

Elise and Jenni lost their virginity at twelve and thirteen, respectively. But they were nine months apart in age, so it had happened for both of them at around the same time. In the three years since then, they had both hooked up with a bunch of guys—some from school, some from other schools, a couple of older guys who had already finished school. They had also kissed girls: mostly just for fun, mostly each other, mostly when drunk, mostly to drive some guy at a party insane, sometimes because they were just bored. Both of them had tried MDMA, coke, speed, and mushrooms. Jenni had also taken acid. Elise had once snorted keta, and she liked to smoke weed. But mostly they just drank. Mostly whatever, but beer was fattening and they usually avoided it.

One Saturday night in June, Jenni came over to Elise’s house and they didn’t go out. Elise was lying on her bed, on top of the covers, and Jenni came in and lay down next to her, head to toe, and they didn’t check their phones to see what their friends were doing, and Elise didn’t pull a bottle of anything from under her bed, and Jenni didn’t take her cigarettes out of her bag and crack the window. They didn’t put any music on, or put on their makeup, or pinch each other’s sides, proclaiming that the other one was a fat bitch who wanted to fuck some unattractive member of their class at school. Elise was reading a book about horses, a book she hadn’t read since she was a little kid. Jenni lay on her back, cycled her legs in the air a few times like she was at an exercise class, then curled up on her side and fell asleep.

“Lise? Girls?” At around seven, Elise’s mum poked her head round the door frame: ready, probably, for the usual fight over curfews or money for taxis or a tube top that was being worn as a dress. “Oh.” The two girls were still on the bed, silent, the windows fogged up from the warmth inside and the cold outdoors.

“Shh.” Elise lifted her head and pointed at Jenni, who was asleep beside her.

“Oh,” her mother whispered. “Okay.”

“I don’t know.” Her voice carried back down the hall from the living room. “They’re just kind of—lying there.”

—

The girls were quiet and sluggish when they came out of Elise’s room for dinner.

Elise’s dad had gotten Japanese takeaway, and the only time either girl spoke was when Jenni accidentally dropped her chopsticks and sent rice flying onto the table and into her glass of Sprite. “Sorry,” she said, looking across at Elise, who was cracking up, her mouth half full of food. “What?” Jenni asked, then she cracked up laughing as well.

“That’s all right,” Elise’s dad said, smiling and shaking his head at her mum. The girls went quiet. They leaned over their bowls and lowered their chins so their faces were closer to their food.

“Did you

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