A day in the life of an oral fixation #4

1:45 pm - She goes to the toilet and relieves herself. She washes her hands and splashes water on her mouth. She does not put soap on her mouth, but dries it with a paper towel. She applies red lipstick to her top lip, from left to right. She applies red lipstick to her bottom lip, from right to left. She rubs her lips together and smacks them lightly. She puckers her lips and then stretches them into a smile, but her eyes don’t follow suit. She pops a mint Tic Tac into her mouth as she walks back to her desk. The minty taste refreshes part of her tongue and the roof of her mouth. The rest of her mouth feels left out.

3:00 pm - She attends a meeting with several colleagues. She stares at their mouths as they talk. She feels tense and grinds her teeth. She pushes her tongue against the back of her front teeth until they hurt. She clenches her jaw tightly and then sighs with her mouth closed. She looks at the man across from her as he sips his coffee and wishes she’d remembered to bring her own. She pours herself a glass of water and takes a drink that makes her teeth hurt with cold. She swallows hard. She brings a paper clip to her lip and hooks it onto her lower-right canine. She briefly smiles at someone who made a joke.

5:00 pm - She leaves the office. She sucks in the inside of her bottom lip and bites it as she walks hurriedly by some people she knows. She takes a hard candy from her bag and unwraps it. She sucks the sweet juice while the candy sits between her tongue and the roof of her mouth. She swishes it around her mouth with her tongue. She feels its sweetness on her gums and the inside of her lips. She pushes it around her mouth in counter-clockwise circles until it gets smaller. She shatters it with her teeth, crunching the shards until she can swallow them as sweet dust. She lights a cigarette by inhaling very deeply. She feels the menthol smoke lightly cooling her warm, sweet mouth as she makes her way home.