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Mireille, still sitting on the curb in the hot sun in a beautiful dress too good for the men upstairs, looked up from her fuming when a car honked, the horn obnoxious, sounding like an out-of-tune trumpet. Mireille forgot about all the drama as the most beautiful sight in all of existence rolled to a stop down the sidewalk, ignoring the yellow lines that showed drivers a no-parking zone. Grabbing her heels, Mireille stood up from the curb as the passenger side window rolled down.
"Beautiful woman!" Angelina popped her head out of the window, a blur of brown hair and a radiant smile.
"Hey, sexy woman!" Mireille yelled back, jumping to her feet and rounding the front of Angelina's van that she refused to abandon. It was the only thing left of her brother and she cherished it with her whole life.
Blood is thicker than water.
But, that wasn't the entire saying and people always stripped it of its true meaning, and God knew Mireille's brothers used it wildly out of context. The whole quote reads that the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb meaning that the people we choose as friends can be stronger than family.
When it came to Mireille's friends she'd do anything for them especially when her unchosen family decided to bully them like they tended to do with her throughout her childhood. In her eyes, they never did anything wrong, all sins forgiven, every fight resolved, every flaw defended.
Friends come and go like the seasons. People come into others' lives for many different reasons, some for a short time, some for a long time. People never know who is real or fake, in it for themselves or selfless reasons. They have to trust blindly that people are genuine. Mireille's mom always told the siblings that some people come into their lives for a reason, whether it be a lesson or a blessing. Later, Mireille found out she stole that line from a Hallmark card, but the words were still true regardless. A lot of people abandoned others when times got tough when the real tough stuff came out. Very few stay no matter what.
Angelina was one of those few. Angelina was a lifer.
Mireille and Angelina knew everything about one another. Like how Angelina loved animals so much that she swore off meat for the rest of her life once they discovered those awful videos of how livestock were treated on the internet, how she loved being the subject of Mireille's photos and her lovely singing voice, which she only showed to the walls of the shower and when she was drunk, or how she loved going to the movies because it was nostalgic because her dad always used to take her to every Harry Potter premiere. She loved heavy metal and horror movies, and her bed was covered in her plushie collection. Mireille knew Angelina's fears, her hopes and dreams, her deepest secrets. And, Angelina knew everything about Mireille; she was the only person Mireille never held back from ever since they met. Angelina was the quiet kid in the back of their art class, who knew how to draw, and Mireille needed to let her know her worth every second of the day.
Angelina, the powerhouse of the group, Mireille admired every aspect of her larger-than-life personality and she wished to be more like her when she grew up.
