The Show After the 17th

01

2023

"Finally, you've run out of excuses and decided to meet us." When I entered the place I was not sure where they were seated. But hearing where the voice was coming from, I realized there was no need for me to search the whole tarot-themed café. Atasha, my best friend was as loud as usual and I wished she would not scream my name.

"Hold up... Did you grow taller? or it is me who grew smaller?" Tasha grabbed and shook both of my shoulders back and forth. I looked at Madison - also my close friend, with my eyes that screamed for immediate rescue but she just raised both of her brows and smiled.

"Tasha, stop harassing her." Tasha untightened her grip on my shoulders only for her to lock me in a suffocating hug.

"You didn't miss me." She whispered. I got confused but then I realized I was not returning her embrace.

"I miss you terribly. But how can I? You're pinning my arms down." She ambushed and enfolded me in her arms then squeezed me. How did she expect me to move and hold her?

As we approached Madison on the table they got for us at the farthest corner, Tasha continued to examine our height difference using her palms as if she were giving me a salute.

"Maddie's still the tallest," I claimed when Madison didn't wait for me to get near her and stood to snatch me from Tasha's hold.

"Yeah, obviously. But we were the same height. Weren't we?" She was so serious she couldn't get over it. But she was right. I was as tall as her three years ago when we were seventeen, both five feet and three inches tall.

"Lucky Anja, her growth didn't stop even after reaching 18." Maddie kissed my cheeks and I got a whiff of her familiar scent. The scent of a fruity perfume was a redolent of comfort for me, sweet like its owner.

Three years later that year. 2020. I survived and was meeting my friends, who both had shown interest in what had happened to me during the years we hadn't seen each other. I can easily tell the physical changes in them. Atasha let her always short hair grow longer than usual and finally tried the wispy bangs she always talked about having. It accentuated her cat-like eyes. She had found a new style and looked so adorable than ever. Madison got fit and her toned arms were flexed in her halter strap. She appeared healthier and her new physique matched her tall height making her more charismatic than before.

Maddie took our orders and went to stand in line giving Tasha the chance to continue praising my height, my hair, my skin, and everything she ever noticed that had changed. Hearing their voice not through call lifted my spirits. They were clear, loud, not lagging, and so real.

I was getting entertained by Tasha's story about how she was so scared of stepping things up with the guy she mostly talked to, online, and had only met thrice the whole year. She was so candid yet still self-conscious - still the same cutesy girl who was always confused about anyone she liked. And speaking of the subject, in the middle of Tasha's intense internal conflict on how she wanted to but also knew she was not ready to commit, the guy rang her phone and Tasha excused herself, leaving me alone at the table.

"Never pick up..." was the registered name and that's ironic because she just did, so quickly.

Madison was already second on the line when her eyes followed Tasha stepping out of the café. She must have known what was up because she didn't seem confused by it, but I noticed how she suddenly appeared tensed up as she was getting near the counter. I waited for whoever returned first at the table and just looked around the place. The café was new and I guessed customers were flocking for its ambiance. But maybe also because of their menu... or the free tarot card reading once you have purchased a minimum of 888 pesos.

When I looked over my shoulder, there was a tiny creature bulging its eyes out while pulsing its head like a jellyfish. I stared at it for a few seconds and made up my mind not to have my child sooner or later. The little creature paused one moment he noticed I was grimacing while observing him. It stuck its tongue out and pulled down its lower eyelid. As juvenile as what I had just encountered, I mirrored what the kid did but exaggerated it slightly. We exchanged a few more distorted facial expressions. It imitated a hopping bunny, in response -stupid as it may looked, I used both of my hands as antlers to counter whatever he was trying to do. If he was a bunny, then I was a moose. My animal was bigger, hence he lost. The kid did not allow me to win, he kept jumping and jumping in place to prove he was not affected. What a good day to make tiny species cry, but this one was tough.

"Anja, you did not..."I lazily turned my head to Tasha who just returned from a phone call and stared at me like I was unbelievable.

"What? It was irritating." I sat properly and rested my chin on both my hands. Madison was now approaching our table so I stood to help her. I took the two huge mugs from the tray so Madison could carry the rest of our orders loaded in it with ease.

"Thanks. The green one is yours. I just saw you contend with a child." Maddie laughed and so was the tray. Why was she shaking? I noticed.

"I'm not the one who started it." I defended myself and looked back at the child who was no longer there but saw the barista looking at us... or should I say he was looking at Madison.

"Okay, so what are you, six?" Tasha added also getting the blue mug. The pink one was Maddie's.

"Need not to remind me that I'm already twenty. Plus one, next month." Staring at the red velvet cake in front of me, I randomly thought of having something tangy on my birthday.

"Welcome to the club." Madison drawled, and we raised our mugs filled with whatever drink this bizarre place was offering.

I am turning twenty-one, but how? When I don't remember anything significant from the past years. Can anyone do me me a recap of how I was and what I ever did to feel so empty at twenty?

Calling...

Simon

Oh great.