"Or a burning cheeto," Lyra said, watching the way Avery breathed, and there must have been more of a look of disbelief on her face than she realised because Mackenzie grinned, all knowingly.
"Oh damn, he's right, Ly, he is. This girl," Mackenzie said, nudging her with one teasing elbow. "Can’t smoke to save herself. Like a twelve year old.”
“It’s hot,” Lyra insisted in her own defense, a laugh behind her eyes. “It’s… smoky!”
“Yeah no shit!” Mackenzie smirked, and offered her the joint so she could prove herself, which Lyra was a hundred percent dead set on doing. Just, take the joint and close her eyes and focus, breathe in and be cool like everyone else was able to do, just suck it down and— choke. No matter what she told them to do or how much she tried to convince them it was alright, Lyra’s lungs rebelled and she was coughing, embarrassingly, her throat feeling singed.
“Every. Single. Time,” Mackenzie said, the ribbing goodnatured, lucky, cuz if there’d been anything unkind about it that woulda stung worse than her throat. Lyra took to so many things like a duck to water, not being able to master something so simple, it sucked. And it wasn’t like she could throw herself into being absolutely terrible at it either, like golf, cuz a wild swing and an inappropriate shout of fore could be funny but coughing was just coughing. Mackenzie was just laughing, though, and there was nothing salt-in-the-woundy about her laugh.
"Akkk, gummies for life, fuck," Lyra rasped, hiding her face against Avery's arm while she recovered, not so much her dignity, because she'd never given much of a fuck about dignity, but her breath, at least.