"I try" Mary shrugged it off, trying to be more confident in herself. Marcus laughed again, then looked her up and down.
"Look, I gotta catch up with Luke, but how bout you gimme your number and I'll text ya later yea?" Marcus smiled, then pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Mary smiled back, put her cigarette in her mouth and took a long drag, then took the phone from his hands as she exhaled the smoke through her nose.
"Oi" Marcus said, taken aback at her confidence.
"You want the number or not?" Mary replied, slightly muffled as she struggled to keep hold of the cigarette between her lips. She took his silence as permission and saved herself into his contacts. She took another long drag as she handed his phone back, then took the cigarette from her mouth and dropped it on the floor, stamping it out.
Marcus checked his phone then slipped it back into his pocket. He started to step backwards, leaving out the opposite end of the alley.
"Cool, I'll text you later then, Mare" he said, giving her a sly wink, then turned and disappeared to the left as he exited the alley.
Mary leaned against the wall, heart racing. She couldn't believe what she'd just done. A week ago it wouldn't have even crossed her mind to have a conversation with a guy like that, and now here she was giving her phone number out to them. Hands shaking out of a mix of nerves and excitement, Mary rummaged in her back for her smokes, and lit another one, taking a long hard drag, then exhaling a thick cloud upwards. She admired it for a moment, then did it again. Her pace increased as she enjoyed the feeling that washed over her.
She felt like it was easier than what the media had portrayed. Usually in TV and films the person always coughs a lot when they first smoke, but Mary already felt like she was a natural and she was only a quarter of the way through her first ever pack, still on single digits total. It already felt like it was a part of her. As she reached the end of it, she grabbed her pack and pulled out one more, placed it between her lips then lit it with the first before dropping it on the floor.
One more before heading home won't hurt. She quickly smoked it, then smothered herself in spray she kept in her bag, put a couple pieces of gum in her mouth then started heading in the direction of home.