Broken Pencils

Every Now and Then

March 13

I think people don't pay enough attention to octopuses. One of the most majestic animals, and they're rarely mentioned.

They're solitary, so no one can break their hearts.

They have three hearts, so if one happens to be broken, the other two can remain intact, waiting to get hurt.

On average, they don't live for very long, so if they want to end it all, it's practically already over.

I wish I were an octopus.

Is that weird?

~~~

They didn't know how long they were there for. It started as just a friendly conversation, and all of a sudden, Marcy and Sasha were kissing.

Maybe it was a few seconds, or maybe a few hours. Either way, it was comparable to a lifetime of bliss.

Only, Marcy wished that Anne was there. They wished that they could kiss Anne, as well, but that seemed... wrong? 

No, it seemed right, it was right, but if Marcy were to be with Anne, then they couldn't be with Sasha. 

And that scared them.

Marcy broke away from the kiss, staring deep into Sasha's eyes. 

"Marcy?"

"I want to be with you so bad, but..."

"But what?" Sasha asked, worried.

"...But I want to be with Anne as well. Does that make me a bad person? Am I a bad person?"

"What? Nononononono, you're an amazing person, and liking Anne is completely understandable."

"What makes you say that? Do... you like Anne, too?"

"Maybe... yeah."

"Does she like us back?"

"I dunno. Maybe? I've known Anne for a really long time and she's always been sorta flirty. I don't know if that's just who she is, or if she just likes me. And I hoped it was that she liked me, but then you came along, and she was kinda flirty with you as well, so I thought that maybe she was just like that. I don't know, maybe she likes us both or maybe she doesn't like either of us. I just don't know."

Marcy sighed. "If Anne doesn't like us back, at least we can still be together, right?"

Sasha's face tinted with a slight shade of red. "I suppose."

"In that case... do you want to be my my girlfriend?"

"As though that's even a question," Sasha chuckled lightly. "I'd love to be your girlfriend. Do you wanna be my... what would I even say? Gender-neutral-friend?"

Marcy laughed. "You could say something like partner, lover, significant other, datefriend, oversized-shirt thief. Whatever feels right."

"Alrighty then, do you wanna be my oversized-shirt thief?"

"But of course, fair maiden."

So.

Marcy and Sasha were dating.

Um...

How did that happen?

How did any of this happen?

Last time Marcy checked, they were just a loser that constantly sat alone at every given moment, always contemplating existence, always yearning for things they couldn't have, always calculating how fragile every day of every week of every month of every year of every decade of every century of every millennium was.