“Learn how to say “no.” Cram that word inside your mouth, the whole thing, make sure all of it gets in there. Let it walk on your tongue. Practice with it in the mirror, push it out, make faces, learn to love the salt and bitter of it. Teach it to perch on your lip, buzz, collect pollen from your sugary gloss. Make it swarm between your cheeks. Then, when the days come (there will be many) where he pushes too hard, speaks too sweetly, when the hand at your thigh draws a thump in your stomach, when the bitch gremlin inside whispers ‘it’s not worth the fight,’ says you can barter for your worth tomorrow, when your ribs shrink, when he unfurls his Almighty Smile, when four come at you at once, when you love someone else, when the bar is closing and your name becomes ‘Take What I Can Get,’ when the girls hate you anyway, when you want him until the burn if only he wore a different face-- pull back your lips, bare the teeth you have sharpened to their perfect points, flick your stinger tongue, set free your swarm.”