Where You Left Me
ShortStory 6,248 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"The best way to hide a red mouth is to know exactly when your gums start to bleed. If you check your teeth every so often with a quick swipe of the tongue, and you get a bit of that saltiness, you’ll learn to take a swig from a canteen and rinse before anyone else notices. The weeps are a little harder. Most of us wear tinted goggles when we ride at the barrier."
Content warnings 1
substance-use
Quasar links out; the story lives on Lightspeed, where the author gets the click.