( Song: nicotine stains - second thoughts. )

"Honey, what's that on your shirt?" Your mother questions after greeting you when you come home, pointing at the tan mark around the hem of your shirt.

"Hm? Oh, It's just spilled coffee." you smile back, your teeth still minty from the intense amount of toothpaste you used to hide the smell of tobacco and smoke.

Your parents made a strict rule not to go anywhere near your neighbor, Cairo Sweet. The reason is cause of her shady and mysterious behavior along with the rumors going around about her and one of the English professors at your school. They thought she was just troublesome and odd, a girl who was miserable and only brought you down so they warned you not to talk to her...yet you went against their wishes.

First, it was just glances in the hallways, then walks outside of school, sneaking out of your house to go visit her and doing all sorts of things behind closed doors. In your young mind, the fact that this relationship with her was so secretive and forbidden made the thrill of it even more exciting and enticing. Like a fly to a carnivorous plant, it was the sweetness of Cairo that reeled you in.

She'd leave her nicotine stains all over you from head to toe, making it harder to hide this little affair from your mother and father but you didn't care. You can't get rid of what you have with her. Every visit is like rolling dice and any moment something new and wild could occur.

You snuck off tonight to go visit her again, praying your parents wouldn't notice as you slink away next door and into her home where everything was unlocked just for you, not even bothering to announce your arrival as you head upstairs in the grand mansion, b-lining it straight to her room.

You find her sitting on a chair, a puffing cigarette between her dark lips as she flicks through one of her classic erotic love stories, invested in the written lines on the pages. "How'd you sneak out this time?" Cairo asks, acknowledging your presence but not yet drawing her eyes up