Life is Funny Like That

Thyrtee. The Literal Best (arc)

my second semester at college, i would sit in the library on campus and play this song on repeat for literal hours. i know, i know, it's so girly-mushy, but who's keeping track of my music taste anyways? i saved it to my playlist mostly because of the words; it felt like having chicken & noodle soup on the worst day ever. sue me.

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Senior year of high school finally came. How long it had been since Kimmy first met the two people who shaped her into who she was. In a lot of aspects, it felt like a lifetime ago.

Brandy-toned eyes danced with mischief as the girl watched the passerby's, holding too many Sephora and Macy's bags as they walked out of the mall. She stirred her pineapple boba absentmindedly as ideas for shenanigans bubbled like a boiling pot in her head. What kind of trouble could they get into today?

Her best friend inhaled his third slice of pizza, his stomach looking to be less of a stomach and more of a bottomless pit the taller he got. He was reaching for 6 feet at the age of seventeen, towering over the brandy-eyed girl who sat beside him. He wasn't sure, but he could sense straight-up jealousy over his height when he wasn't looking.

Kimmy sighed, boredom seeping into her like the pizza getting eaten by Noel

She turned to him with a blank look, asking for some sort of simulation. Anything would be better than this; her eyes pleaded, needing the smallest hint of amusement to keep her sane.

Noel smiled at her, a look of admiration she never seemed to notice or ignored, he wasn't sure anymore. Whether Kimmy knew he had a giant crush on her or not, it was frustrating. He started dropping hints more bluntly, but they all received that bored look, the look Kimmy gave when she wasn't impressed. And knowing Kimmy, it was hard to impress that girl. Really hard. Basically impossible.

It didn't really dishearten him. That's what made her so special. She was an ice queen of the lands of either 'I'm too good for you', or utter density of a brick wall and fruitcake sandwich. If anything, it only drew him in. Clawing and screaming, he resisted her charms, but to no avail, no matter how cliché it felt, falling for the best friend wasn't in his plans for success as an adult, yet here he was.

It wasn't such a bad thing. Even though the queen of ice hadn't noticed his vain attempts, she hadn't accepted anyone else either so it wasn't as harsh of a blow to the ego.

One day.... You'll notice me one day, you brick sandwich. Noel sighed, nibbling on the crust of his fifth slice.

Kimmy resorted to slurping her boba with an inescapable feeling as if she was trapped in the little restaurant that stood outside the mall. Strands of her strawberry-stained hair fell out of her pencil knot to brush across her cheeks. The summer sun cascaded on the four tattoos on her arms. A small but prominent mark appeared to be the first tattoo she got at fifteen. On the inside of her wrist, it depicted an anchor being drug across the floor of the sea.

Noel asked what it meant one time. A careless stare, Kimmy's signature smolder, the boys called it, pointed down at it.

As if talking about the weather, she shrugged. "Even though life holds you back with everything it's got, you just gotta keep going."

That was answer enough to tip him over the exit of the plane he begin to fall from. Everyday he fell a little closer to the ground. What awaited at the ground? There was a mix of anxiety and excitement to find out.

Noel was the goody-goody, strait-laced, combed hair, shined shoes, Catholic boy. Tattoos were from the devil, and there was no question about it.

At least... that's what he thought. Till the third month of freshman year, when the girl with three tattoos at the time, grabbed his hand and drug him with her to buy pizza.