Dead Eyed Girls

"I feel like we're in a movie, we're like a terrible trio of teens - that's what they would call us. But in the movie you would just see us wandering around the city, eating breakfast and going to get Tessa's ears pierced and you wouldn't know any of the terrible things actually going on, that would just be the subtext. Movie critics would debate over it, what it really means."
They laughed and we passed a joint around and I wondered how stable the balcony really was.
"There's a kid watching us," Tessa pointed out. Down in the corner of a window on the first floor, a little hassidic boy was peaking through the tightly drawn blinds.
"Yeah, there are always kids looking through windows here, they get really excited if you wave at them." I tried it - he didn't wave back, but shouted some things at me that I couldn't understand. He was too young to know he shouldn't be talking to us. Then Zach told us about his aunt and uncle who had converted; he said something about how it was like being in a cult. He went quiet again and disappeared into his phone and all his people, these people he thought he had to appease and the things he should believe so they might accept him again.

As we went back inside I turned and shouted bye! to the little boy down in the corner of the window. And to my surprise he shouted it back.