MOVING ON 
A small bedroom in a modern studio flat a lone woman in her early thirties sets up a selfie ring. She hums a popular melody of Watermelon Sugar High. Tastes like strawberries, on a summer evening. You know when you’ve reached that moment? When your going out on a date again and you really cant find anything to wear. So I’m playing that game. Keep, sell or scrap with my wardrobe. A phone pings  with a message reading ‘What you up too...........? wink emoji’ (seen on a screen) Ebay. bubbles (seen on a screen) Oxfam? A phone pings  with a message reading ‘What are you wearing? smirk emoji’ Bin! A phone pings  with a message reading ‘Send me a pic? cheeky monkey emoji’ Oh my god...this is my prom dress. Holds up a prom dress. There was a time when I would sleep in this.... A phone pings  with a message reading ‘Or I could send one instead? aubergine emoji’ Low battery. It’s like a formula the texts guys send. I feel that its like a game of snap for them. They send a set of questions until they hit on someone that matches the required answer. Twitter notification ‘Elon Musk to sell twitter, calls it a conscious uncoupling’ streamers emoji’ Battery dies and lights lower. The last time I wore this dress I was standing in the village hall waiting... Over there was Charlie Spaceman and I wanted him to ask me to dance. It was the school leavers prom. He was fit. I waited all night in this prom dress. Make up and hair done and... Nothing! Not even a bit of the side eye. When I realized he wasn’t going to ask me to dance I began to cry. I ran outside and stood there in the rain. Waiting for my Dad to pick me up. Tears and mascara streaming down my face. Feeling about as shit as anyone could on the night of their school leavers prom. Dad said maybe there was to much empty space in Charlie’s brain! According to my mate Dana the problem wasn’t with Charlie it was with me? I didn’t believe in myself enough, she said to me. Charlie who played football for the school only had eyes for the cheerleaders. The trouble was I felt I had to fancy Charlie. I definitely need to get a boyfriend again. I don’t want you to think I’m not serious about moving on because I am. I’ve tried to take it seriously, its just its online dating... I sign on, set up a profile but never fully subscribe. After my accident I had a bit of a melt down. Its something that only makes sense when your trying to make sense of something that happened. Except the thing that happened isn’t supposed to have of. The pressure to succeed as a woman. Sometimes it all gets to much. After all we  have been fighting for our equality for thousands of years. Whilst man was hiding in the caves staring into the flames. I was rooting for Britney Spears when she had her melt down. Along with all the crazy, workaholic, burnt-out, women. Multi-tasking between nature and nurture. The thing I really wanna know is how did Britney make that comeback? One minute her world was spinning out of control the next a Las Vegas residency. Talk about hit me baby one more time. If I ever recovered from my talent show disaster... I really wanted that audition to go well. Being a milennial you get given the excuse for being a waster for nothing. At least I’d tried to have a goal which wasn’t run by my teenage hormones. I tried to abstain. But its a bit like going vegetarian and then someone offers you a bacon sandwich? My first experience of unrequited love, ahh! In college my best mate Dana achieved the status in master of the fine art of flirting. This was due to some considerable effort. Plus the amount of time she’d spent practicing the technique. We entered the sixth form with a mission so stealth like. That we were convinced we’d have guys eating out of our hand. Dana knew the tactical move of reading body language. If you spoke to a guy and his eyes went up and to the left he was lying.  A potential cheater or a bum. If his eyes went up and to the right  he was trying to assess if it was logical talking to you. Aka you were in there with a chance. Dana was a smart girl. We all thought she’d go to university. She didn’t bargain on Alan Truman though. I thought Alan’s just sitting there completely immune. Dana was convinced he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. Convinced he was besotted with her. Alan had this wonky eye which was kind of a bit sexy. Not long after the college found out Dana was pregnant. We wondered. With the pressure of expectation riding on her. She had Alan ride her instead. Such a waste of talent. During puberty there’s a certain amount of pre-wired expectation. We’re all trying to work out what the other is feeling. Are they picking on you? Or do they fancy you? You have to. How else can you work it out. It went from friends to suddenly no-one wanted to hang out anymore. Arguments broke out between the groups that stalked each others social media. Online was a world with no parents allowed. But this was far more complex than meeting behind the bike shed’s for a smoke. The truth was I missed Dana more than Luke in the end. Isn’t it funny how I thought I had the perfect relationship with Luke. Did everything by the book and I ended up alone. So when the chance to go to my high school reunion came up I sort of grabbed it.