It’s cold outside. The chill seeps into my flesh, prickles at the skin revealed by too-short sleeves and chills the layer of sweat just beneath. But my fingers and lips are warm as I take a long drag and swallow the smoke down like they’d instructed before expelling it out my nose like an enraged dragon. The burning end nips at where it’s pinched between the first knuckles of my index and middle finger so I pass it along. I rub the burned patches of flesh with the pad of my thumb, wishing I had a hoard like dragons do.
Gabriel Rizzo is a trans student from Salem State University who is terrible at being concise and likes bugs.