BWWM | Oneshots & Short Stories

#WoodChoppingGuy

"Girl why are you staring at your phone like that?"

When Nova didn't answer her question, her older sister, Zola leaned over to see just what had Nova so entranced on her iPhone's screen. Nova had her AirPods in so Zola couldn't quite hear either.

"I know you are not!" Zola pulled one of the AirPods out of Nova's ear and made her nosy findings known. "You see one thirst trap video of this man chopping wood and now you're going on a hashtag binge?" Zola watched as Nova clicked #woodchoppingguy at the bottom of her TikTok screen.

Most thought Nova was the oldest with her wise and mature ways but Zola had her beat by just seven months.

What should have been at least nine months of fetal gestation and an age gap for Nova had only been seven — which Zola said further proves Nova should've been the older sister. "She didn't even need to bake all the way." Zola would argue. Their mother, Cynthia, had had one of those extremely rare superfetation pregnancies. She'd gotten pregnant with Nova in her ninth month of pregnancy with Zola.

And to top it off, not only had Nova survived the birth of her older sister, she'd had the nerve to be born a month early.  Most people would ask if they were twins — fraternal, because they moved in sync and sounded just alike but that was where the similarities ended. The sisters would laugh it off and tell the inquirer no simultaneously.

Zola took after their father, with golden skin, freckles and hair that naturally grew towards the sun, but these days, she kept in neat and intricate locs. She was charismatic, which made her such a great pediatric nurse, and so slender Zendaya would envy her.

Nova on the other hand had an umber skin tone that reminded Zola of espresso. Zola had always admired Nova's hair. Much like Nova's personality, her hair was delicate, fine and mystical. It bent to her will with little effort. She tended to wear it at the back of her head in a braid that stopped just below her shoulders. When she was nervous, overwhelmed, or enticed, she would unconsciously twirl the loopy curl at the end of her always-there braid. Nova wasn't slender. As a child, she was "fat" — which her classmates would never let her forget. As an adult, she was a voluptuous size twelve. No matter what pants she wore, her hips were there, her breasts just as noticeable and she had a stubborn back roll that she was always conscious of. Zola sometimes found herself wishing she could fill out clothes like Nova, and Nova simply wished she could go into any store and leave with something to wear like her sister.

"So what?" Nova turned her screen out of her sister's view and settled deeper into Zola's sofa. Nova quickly flicked up on her screen, dismissing the TikTok app. She was careful not to fully close it because she definitely planned on finishing her hashtag excursion. Nova opened her Amazon app and quickly found a screen protector with the privacy tint that would fit her iPhone's display. After ordering it for next day delivery, Nova turned to her older sister.

"I mean if you would go outside and touch grass, you'd probably meet someone you like."

"Doubt it." Nova grumbled and changed the subject. "I don't want to go on another beach vacation. You and Myra are tripping. This will be the third in a row." Nova said, mentioning their favorite cousin. "Myra said something about Lake Tahoe, it could be fun."

"Lake?" Zola scrunched up her nose at the thought. Mosquitos, bears and poison Ivy did not sound like a good time.

"No, no it wasn't Lake Tahoe." Nova remembered after scrolling through she and Myra's texts. "Pine Mountain Lake." Nova corrected.

"Lake Tahoe is here in Nevada, where the hell is Pine Mountain Lake? Sounds like some Oregon shit." Zola crossed her arms over her chest, not liking where this is going.