Summer short story season: David Herkt presents a story by Eve Ravlich about a mischievous flirt who just loves to tease. 'I'm such a stereotype,' Aimi giggled, holding her Lady Danger lipstick in her hand. 'I couldn't live without my MAC lipsticks. They go on so smooth, last for hours, and feel so good on my lips. And of course MAC have a huge colour range.' Aimi capped the lipstick and pouted in the mirror. The red lipstick was perfectly applied and very glossy. 'OK, I'm Japanese. I come from Setagaya, which is in Tokyo. I am eighteen years old. I am in New Zealand on a student visa. I speak perfect English as a consequence of much international travel when I was a child, but I can talk Japlish if you think it's cuter.' 'My father is in banking. My mother is a pediatrician. My father is a typically distant Japanese father. My mother is caring but firm. I am an only child.' She swung her long black shag-cut hair which lashed around her face. Then she shook it back into perfect place. 'Uh,' she laughed, 'and I'm a lesbian. No, really. It's true. Don't look at me like that. I have a complete set of Buffy The Vampire Slayer DVDs. It must be the facts.' 'What else can I say? How can I prove it? I slept with my friend Yumi when I was sixteen. She would come over to study except she would try on my clothes and we'd play with makeup. We'd practice kissing and sometimes I would pretend be the boy and say things like 'You are really hot, Yumi. I have needs. They must be exercised.' One day we just went all the way. No, I'm not going to tell you anymore. The screens are drawn.' 'Do I like New Zealand girls? They smell different. They are not made the same. They are bigger. I have had sexual encounters many times with Kelly. She is very forward. I do not mind being the object of her desires. I am not in love with her. I have preferences for other Japanese girls but I am not exclusive. I do not like the lesbian underworld here.' Aimi bent over the vanity unit to check her eyes, turning her head slightly. 'It's Maybelline Great Lash. It improves on nature. You love it? So do I. It is cheap and it has cult-status.' 'I like going out with my friends Junko and Kaedi. I met them at college here. Like me they are bad girls their parents send away to be educated. No, I haven't slept with them. You have a really muddy mind, you know that? Real bad. Well maybe I'd like to do things with Junko. They call us the Short Skirt Girls. It sounds better in Japanese.' She stands up again smoothing down her pleated tartan skirt which descends only a few centimeters below her crotch. 'We all wear short skirts. Junko doesn't mind kissing me for boys when we are out at clubs. Boys like it if girls kiss, ever notice that? Makes them horny. Junko likes boys being horny and I like kissing Junko so all is very happy in Disneyworld. When Junko and I are kissing sometimes we are shameless. I can feel the boys' eyes. I kiss her and they watch. They can't help it. She kisses back. We do tongue. They have little erections, I am sure. But you know what? The thing I like the best?' Aimi opens her dark eyes wide. 'No? You cannot guess?' She turns back to the mirror and flicks beneath her underlip with her little finger, grimaces in the glass to make sure she still has no lipstick on her teeth, and then tosses her hair again with a firm shake. 'The thing I like the best,' she explains slowly and very precisely, while closely inspecting her Maybellined lashes in the glass, 'is that they will never, ever have me. Not even if the skies freeze over, you know?' Eve Ravlich admires New Zealand lesbian writer, Paula Boock, and generally writes fiction for teenage girls. 'I think that when you are a teenager the things that you read can open up or close off the rest of your life. I'd like to think that I could open up the world a little bit.' Eve is 24.and is a childcare worker. Copyright ©David Herkt. All Rights Reserved. Eve Ravlich - 7th January 2008