Slumber Party by Theodora Bishop

Girls stop being girls after they mistake the petals of the Venus Dogwood
for condoms. After they clothe their dolls in their best dresses
and place them beside the chicken cutlets
in the freezer. After they pour the forest into their Starbucks and after
they play light as a feather, stiff as a board, and every body floats.
Girls stop being girls after they fall asleep holding mirrors.
After they hear the hunter shoot the wolf in the head
and agree: one must wrench the slack jaws open
while the other shines a light to count the teeth.

Theodora Bishop is the author of the novella On the Rocks, winner of a 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Award. Her short story chapbook, Mother Tongues, won The Cupboard Pamphlet’s 2015 contest. Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Prairie Schooner, Arts & Letters, Short Fiction (England), and elsewhere.