"You guys awake?"

Evan forced open his sleep-encrusted eyes.

"Uhh," he gargled out, his throat gummed up. His head felt like a dirty aquarium.

Lily was still snoozing against his chest, a portrait of peace.

Matt appeared in the stairwell.

"You guys awake," he called down again.

"Yes," said Lily, her voice muffled by Evan's shirt.

Her own shirt was riding up her back, showing her prominent spine. Her skin was as pale as her namesake. The proximity of her warmth and softness struck Evan's now-sober mind and he felt limitless elation at his good fortune. Sure, his friends had fucked her, but she'd gone to sleep with him. Surely that counted for something. And that drunken ass Brian had only gotten a handful of pussy juice.

Evan kept his hands locked around her.

"I work later but I want chicken wraps for breakfast," Matt called down. "You guys want chicken wraps?"

"Chicken wraps sound amazing," said Lily. "Do you want chicken wraps, Evan?"

"More than anything," said Evan, his mind sparking with serotonin. He kept his hands where they were, trying to preserve the moment for as many precious seconds as possible, but she slipped out from between his arms and climbed off the couch.

She stood up and adjusted her shirt down over her white belly before donning her hoodie, then pulled a comb from her purse and ran it through her thick hair, fixing snags. Evan lay and looked up at her.

"Sleep good?" she asked him.

She picked up her phone. Evan couldn't help but notice she had a good twelve unread messages.

They went into town to the Chipotle. Evan drove, and Lily sat in the passenger seat again, texting away and having a morning smoke, the window cracked and letting in the cool air. Matt dozed in the back.

"My head's killing me," he said. "I'm dying. I really wish I didn't have to work today."

Evan barely heard him. His eyes were on the road but his attention was all on the girl next to him. He longed to reach over and take her hand, to squeeze it gently and feel her fingers mesh up with his.

Lily didn't say much, except once when Evan attempted conversation. He saw her feet crammed into her small black shoes and asked why her toes were bandaged.

"Oh, it's for my work shoes," she said. "The outsides of my big toes and my pinky toes get rubbed raw when I'm on my feet all night. Really uncomfortable." Then it was back to her phone, answering message after message.

"You're popular," Evan told her.

She gave a curt nod, a yeah-no-shit look on her face.

It was another sunny, balmy, mid-summer day. It would be humid, hazy. Evan felt young and alive, like a flower opening.

He looked at Lily. She'd become appealing to him in a way he'd never felt before. The thought of her sweet face gave him pause, every love song he'd ever heard was now about her. All after one night.

The daylight was not forgiving to her. Evan saw how malnourished she looked, how translucent and sickly her complexion was, how the dim light of the strip club and Matt's basement had hidden every blemish on her. She didn't smile much, and Evan began to find that endearing.

They got to Chipotle. Lily looked timeworn and tired and sad standing in line with them. The chipper if mouthy little girl who'd lived down the street had been replaced with a sallow, gloomy young woman who somehow looked both younger and older than nineteen.

When they got to the cash register, the cashier asked if their bills were all together.

"Yeah," said Evan quickly. "I got it."

"Thanks, dude," said Matt, surprised.

"Yeah, thanks," said Lily, looking up from her texts to smile pleasantly.

Evan paid with his bank card, telling himself that the overdraft fee would be well worth it.

They ate in Evan's car, devouring their wraps, the sound of chewing and crumpling wrappers, and when they were finished Matt said he had to get home cause he had work in an hour. Matt worked at a Belle Tire.

"Yeah, I gotta go home, too," said Lily. "My roommate wants to see me."

"I can take you," Evan said, maybe a little too quickly. The wrap and Coke had cleared his head. His mind kept drifting back to waking up and seeing Lily resting on him, her eyes closed, her chest rising and falling with his.

She's perfect, he thought, watching her wad up her wrapper and wipe salsa off the surface of her iPhone. Her finger nails were as black as her hair, and chipping at the edges.

"It's all the way in Brighton," Lily said. "He said he'd just come get me, you don't have to."

"It's not a problem," said Evan. "After we drop off Matt I can take you."

"All right," she said, smiling again and thumbing her iPhone. "If you insist."

Evan noticed Lily's phone had a pink case on it. DADDY'S LIL' MONSTER was stenciled in black punkish letters, and a little devil girl in jeans twirled her tail seductively.