Re: Audrey/Hannah: Tea
Everyone did it, and it was okay. It had been this way forever and ever, and people always felt terrible around people who were mentally not okay, and they were sorry for themselves, and they were uncomfortable. She'd realized it young, and it was something that was still true, and it was okay. Even Audrey being upset on the forums, it was about Audrey, and maybe everything was about other people, and she'd always known that people saw themselves first, and that was okay too. Because there were other things too, and those things balance it out. There was love, memories like photographs, and people who cared unconditionally. The good and the bad, they swirled together and danced hand-in-hand, and it was okay.
And Audrey was new. She was young, and so many things she experienced were opening the book for the very first time. "Sometimes, I won't think to contact anyone. That's why I'm telling you not to worry, because it'll happen, okay? It's just something that happens, and sometimes I just work late and stay at the trailer, and it's better than walking here after the carnival sometimes. I just want you to be okay, and I know I always have a place here. I know." She did.
But questions, and Hannah sipped her tea, and Audrey stammered and rushed and sex. "How old was I when I first had sex?" she repeated thoughtfully, and she smiled over the brim of her teacup, because it was such an innocent question. "I was 14," she said, "and he played football, and Si hated him, and my dad hated him, and I don't even know if I liked him very much, but he was pretty," she said, and she tipped her head, ear to shoulder. "Is there someone you want to have sex with?"