“Don’t you dare walk in empty-handed,” my mother yells to me from the kitchen. I am seventeen, locked in our hall bathroom, getting ready for dinner at Veronica Clark’s house. Veronica lives in the ritzy part of town. Makeup needs to be just right. I lean closer to the medicine chest mirror and flick the mascara wand up, up, up. “Stop and pick up a nice coffee cake for dessert,” she says. I stare into the mirror and see myself handing coffee cake to Veronica’s mother or God forbid her brother, Ryan. I look away. More mascara. Up. Up. Up.
Kathy Curto is the author of Not for Nothing: Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood. She constantly replenishes the Little Free Library in her front yard. Instagram: @kathy.curto