A GIRL IN HER WALLED CITY

Street Cleaners

You can’t sleep. You roll around and toss and turn in my sheets. Restless. Somewhat unlike the boy who used to sleep in with me until 3pm in my loft bedroom. I used to have to kiss you a million times just to wake you up from your doze. When the sun rose we used to take it in turns to drape sheets over the windows to stop the light entering our cocoon a little longer. Remember? Now you can’t settle so I tell you to go. It’s 5am and the sun is just beginning to show on the curtains. Night’s gone but it’s not quite morning yet either. There’s a distant whirring coming from the street cleaners outside. It reminds me of walking through our sleeping city the first time I left with you. You kiss me on the forehead and tell me to go back to sleep. Zip up your jacket, walk down the hallway, down the stairs and the door clicks shut. I lay in silence, your headlights beam up...

How To Be Style-Influenced At A Healthy Level

by agirlinherwalledcity

My sister and I have always fought about clothes. When I was 14 and she was 9, she’d want to wear exactly the same outfit as me for practically every occasion… As a newly-turned teen with an identity to figure out, I found this completely suffocating and incredibly embarrassing. I can still hear my mum’s ‘be nice to each other’ yells echoing up the stairs as my sister strolled around in my favourite checked shirt whilst I tried to rip it off her. Through my rage, I failed to notice what was truly going on in that moment. I was influencing her. On a very small scale, but it was still influencing. To this day, I can still ransack my sister’s wardrobe and find a minimum of five pieces that belong to me. It’s most definitely a sister thing but also, in a way, just a human thing. If I had the ability to steal some of my friend’s clothes and get away with it like a sister could, I probably would. And, don’t...