Page 23 of Breaking the Dark

“Holy crap, Malcolm, I’m not that old.”

“Yeah, but you know what I mean. Like back when you were young it was okay to look rough.”

“What the—?”

“But it kind of was. And now there are all these expectations for kids to look flawless. At least on-screen, you know? All these filters and shit. Just got me thinking…”

As he talks, Jessica switches on her phone and hits her camera roll. There’s the photo she took earlier to send to Luke of her and Speckles and there is, yes, some kind of filter on the shot even though she has never knowingly activated it. She zooms in on the image, closer and closer, and it doesn’t matter how far in she goes, there is not a hint of a pore or a line or a blemish.

She glances up at Malcolm as he continues. “It’s gotta be just a matter of time before someone works out how to filter people in the real world. Don’t you think? And imagine the power of that? Imagine a world where everyone is perfect.”

Shortly after Malcolm leaves, Jessica’s phone buzzes. She picks it up and sees a message from Luke’s friend, Danny Rand.

I’m in the city. Come meet me?

She sees that he is still typing and bites her lip as she waits for his next message. It’s a link to a noodle bar in Chinatown, followed by the suggestion: 7:30?

She replies: Great. See you there.

This meeting is strictly informal but still feels weirdly like a combo date/job interview, and she decides to shower and change and put on some halfway decent clothes. She eyes herself in the bathroom mirror before she leaves and pulls the last fading curls of her mermaid hair over her shoulders. She doesn’t know what Luke might have said to Danny about the two of them, if he talked to Danny about her at all, but in any event, he’s Luke’s friend and she wants to look nice for him.

Danny is halfway through a giant bowl of ramen when she walks into the noodle bar an hour later. He sees her walk in and wipes his chin with a paper napkin before getting to his feet. “Hey!” he says. “Jessica!”

He’s tall and blond, as stupidly good-looking as ever.

“Danny, good to see you.” She shakes his hand and then slides onto the banquette opposite him.

“Here.” He hands her a large, laminated menu. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you. I missed lunch. But they’re fast here.”

Her eyes skim the photographic menu, and she notices that her nausea has subsided. She wonders then if maybe she’s not pregnant after all, and at the thought of that possibility she feels a confounding bolt of both sadness and relief. She hasn’t eaten a proper meal in days, and she orders a Singapore laksa with a side of crystal shrimp rolls.

“So,” says, Danny, eyeing her with interest. “Jessica Jones. Luke told me you’ve been hanging out.”

“He did?”

“Uh-huh. He said a lot of nice things.” He smiles reassuringly. He has impossibly white teeth and crazy-blue eyes. “You look good.”

“No, I really do not. But thank you.”

“How’ve you been holding up?”

He’s talking, of course, about what they all talk about when they think of her. Not that they know what really happened.

“Good days, bad days.”

“You deserve better, you know.”

Jessica startles at this statement. “Better than what?”

“Better than…” He sighs. “Sorry. I know you’re a pretty private person. But I just always thought…” He visibly struggles with his words.

“Oh my God,” she says impatiently. “What?”

“Nothing. Forget I said anything. I just don’t think we should let the past define us, is all.”

Jessica bristles. “It does not define me. I have a lot of other stuff going on. Seriously. I’m all good.”

Danny laughs. “What!”