A week before college starts, I am told I must get there early to quarantine in a hotel. I arrive and check in. I walk around the lobby, though I’m strictly forbidden from leaving my room. I find only one other, besides me. She’s a senior from eastern Europe. We spend our days in my room, laughing and playing cards and smoking clove cigarettes out the window. Quarantine ends and school starts. We meet up only once more; we play cards and smoke clove cigarettes, but we do not laugh.
Love, succinctly
