¿ɪꜱ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴀʟʟ ʀᴇᴀʟ? ✰𝘼𝙡𝙚𝙭 𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙨✮

✰. 34

12 Grapes

✰

Hearing the loud disturbance of going talking, laughs, and even little fireworks going off in the distance was enough to make your head hurt. There were lots of people in one house. Did you know anyone? No, but you've seen many kids from school. This wasn't a family party or anything. It was more like a block party, and almost every family from the neighborhood had a child that went to the same school as you.

You stayed seated on the couch, not really knowing what to do because all of the kids knew each other, minus you. You've seen them around school, but don't talk with them. All of the parents were in the backyard or somewhere in the front, smoking or having fun with drinks.

Looking at the large clock on the cream wall, it was thirty minutes till twelve. Thirty minutes with nothing to do. Leaning back on the couch, you looked over the house. Eventually, your eyes made their way to the kitchen. Nothing can go wrong with food.

You got up from your position and stole a red cup from the stack on the table. Entering the not so clean kitchen, which was ridden with alcohol bottles, bags of chips, and fruit platters, you opened a new bottle of soda. The liquid was clear, having it be 7Up, and it was tingly the moment it entered your mouth and went down your throat.

You stayed in the kitchen, looking at the mess the teens made without the parents noticing. You bit your lip in thought. You weren't hungry, but you wanted something sweet. Hesitantly, you put down the party cup and rummaged through the cabinets to find nothing.

"Nothing," you muttered to yourself and closed the last cabinet. The only thing relatively sweet was the fruit that was calling your name from the counter. Looking at the time on the stove, it read; 11:49.

You kept your eyes on the time, almost sure you were hallucinating. Twenty minutes have gone by, and you've only done two things. Surely someone must have drugged you. Your right eye twitched when a minute passed.

11:50

You grabbed the red solo cup and emptied it out in the sink. Rinsing it free of the taste of a carbonated soft drink, you rushed to the fruit platters and looked over your option. You cringed as you evaluated each fruit. "The apple slices turned brown," you put your elbow down and rested your head on your palm. "Pinapple scratches my throat, Kiwi too... sometimes. Oranges are okay, but they taste better when cold. Strawberries... look soggy," you slumped on the counter, and you could have sworn you felt a tear drop from your eye.

The only option on the plate was grapes. The green and purple kind. You looked back up at the fruit as if they were mocking you. You sniffled, you didn't really like grapes, and you didn't want to eat them. You tried to convince yourself why they were good for you and possibly why they weren't good for you, too. However, one distant conversation rang through your mind.

͙͘͡★

"You know, if you eat twelve grapes under a table at midnight, supposedly you will get a boyfriend or girlfriend in the new year," your friend spoke as she nodded like a bobble head to her own words.

"Eat them like... all at once or...?" you asked, watching how she corrected the lipstick on her lips while looking at her little mirror.

In a second, she angled the mirror over her shoulder, looking at a boy who was eating lunch with his friends in the school courtyard. "No... you have like a minute to eat them."

"Do you think it's true?"

"Well, I hope," she grinned and closed the circular mirror, "He's such a cutie." She noticed your distant look and tapped your shoulder to look behind her, "I think you and Alex would go good together."