In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

WANDERLUST
Penny made for the East Village, sometimes dealers lurked
around Tompkins Square Park, but the cops must have already busted
them because there were only some passed out winos and washed out
roller-bladers. She continued down Avenue A, then Essex to Delancey
a street crawling with somnambulic junkies but not pot dealers. Even
Roosevelt Park was deserted. There were sources around Confucius
Plaza. Nothing, On her way home she passed by Go Go's, but she
wasn't hungry. And she couldn't find anyone to sell her a nickel bag.
Defeated, she staggered back down Grand street to find Ula and
Sandro stepping out of the elevator, dressed to the nines.
"Want to come to a party?" Ula sang out with gleeful sarcasm.
"Party in my pants, everyone's invited."
"What did you do?" He growled at his elegant companion.
"Nothing."
"Oh, everything," Penny yelled out the elevator door as it shut.
Ula was back to a patchouli whiff in the hall. Sandro she could
feel run down the hall late for practice. Otherwise, even he only existed
through his Johnny Walker that lingered in the elevator.
Penny spent the rest of the summer meditating and wandering
the streets, the only places she could find peace of mind. By mid-
summer Penny's hair tumbled around her shoulders in a jumble of
romantic ringlets transmuted by the sun's alchemy from copper to gold.
She needed to look like a girl now, even if she wouldn't let herself feel
like one. She even bought conditioner, and a wide toothed comb for
the tangles. D'Oc had been right about the hair, with her high white
forehead, she looked just like a medieval fairy princess, but one in Tshirt,
cutoffs and ninety nine cent flip-flops.
When Sandro first caught a glimpse of her on the other side of
Canal Street from the Pearl Paint sidewalk, he stopped in his tracks,
didn't cross or even wave, just leapt up the steps into the art store.
Penny realized he was tailing her a few days later on one of her
hikes. So, she started following him. First she followed him west
through Tribeca to Hudson River Park. The temperature sizzled near
one hundred and his shirt was stuffed into one of his rear pockets, his
torso glowing bronze. Slung around his chest on a red silk chord was a
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