And, miraculously, once the pain became all that there was in the universe, once I had embraced it as the natural order of existence, it just faded aw...y."Good start, lean into it," he said to me.I looked around. I was laying on my back in Loris's front patch of dirt. I was soiled from rolling around in the dirt, and I'd wet myself. Marco stood over me, barking and snapping, trying to find something to kill.From the looks of it, only moments had passed. I got cleaned up, and Loris made scrambled. I was sixteen and Matt was seventeen. We had been best friends since the first grade and our friendship took a drastic but amazing turn. “Oh, my god Matt, really!” I replied to my friend matt. “Yes Kristen it’s true. He stood me up.” He replied “Matt honey I am so sorry. Do you want to come over and hang out?” I asked. “Yea I guess that would make me feel a lot better.” He replied a little peppier than before. “See you soon. Love you Matt Matt. ” I replied “Love you too Krissy.” He. We need to talk.”She looked unhappy, but got up and settled herself on a rock near me around the now cold fire pit. I had water heating for oatmeal on the single-burner I used when hiking, and had handed her a cup of freeze-dried coffee.She sipped the hot brew, then blew on it and sat back, eyes downcast. “Have I displeased you, Master?”I looked at her, and was struck once again at how pretty she was, and now, how eager. I wondered if she would remain so.“No, you haven’t. So far, you have been. "You can collect it in a bit. No doubt they'll head back to the bookiesin a bit for the next race." Theresa didn't look impressed, but followedalongside her as they made their way following their targets to thetoilet block. Their marks quite sensibly decided to the disabledlavatories and Angela noted that they'd brought a Radar key with them tolet themselves in to the disabled toilet."That's an offence there for a start," Theresa protested."Would you prefer that they went to the ladies?" Angela.