Little Miss Nosy

Trevor Woods

- Edited -

My dads tried to raise the perfect kid. I say 'tried' because perfect is a personality trait that many strive for, but none achieve. So while I was labeled as respectful, kind, composed, never speaking out of turn; I also became a people pleaser who believed that if others were discontent, I failed.

So when I almost gave my dads heart attacks by telling them I wanted to try out for the football team, they made me promise I wouldn't inherit every stereotype portrayed through the jock character in film and media. I promised, and me being the trustworthy only child that I am, got their blessing.

I spent the first weeks of freshman year practicing my runs, throwing the football at a tree because I didn't know anyone who could partner with me yet. One time I let the ball slip through my fingertips without realizing a girl was sitting in front of it. It bounced off the trunk and landed on her scattered notebooks.

She glanced around before finding me waving my arm in the distance. The force behind her throw knocked the air out of me, and when I looked up, speechless, she winked and went back to her books like the interaction never happened.

I was intrigued.

So when she found me at the top of the bleachers the next day and asked, "You wanna go somewhere?" without so much of an introduction, I followed even though I had to be home by five. "I have a curfew, too. But I don't care."

I didn't find out who she was until a week later, after she got suspended for passing around a stolen test answer sheet. "You know that try-hard with the fake piercings and purple streaks? The one who just got busted for cheating?" Madison Wells said in homeroom. "Her name's Carmen. She's weird. And she hangs with that Paige girl, who's even more weird. I'd stay away."

That last part was directed at me. I knew Carmen was a little rebel from the beginning; the opposite of myself in every way possible. I heard opposites were supposed to attract, and we did for a good three years. But lately our attraction to one another was something we had to force. "We're losing it, aren't we?" she asked weeks ago.

Yeah. Yeah I think we are.

"Knock knock." The voice pulls me away from the mess in my backyard. The green numbers on my digital clock read 3:12, both it and common sense telling me I won't get this house cleaned and get a power nap in before my dads get back in the afternoon.

Macey's standing in my doorway, playing with her fingers as she stares at me with tired yet attentive eyes. "Everyone's gone and Bella's waiting for me in the car. I picked up as many cups as I could find but the place is a mess and I couldn't-"

I wave a hand to stop her mid-sentence. "It's fine. You can't host without expecting something going to shit. Remember Michael's homecoming after-party?"

"When the cops were called and we scattered like roaches?! That was insane. Makes for good storytelling, though."

I laugh at her enthusiasm as she retells the story like we weren't scared shitless at the time. "I guess I can't top a finale like that."

"Nah. Yours was way better." She glances at Carmen laying in bed, dead to the world as she sleeps off all the liquor she consumed. I propped a bottle of ibuprofen on the nightstand for her to find once she wakes. Macey's smile falters. "You need help with anything before I go?"

As if her cue, Bella leans on the horn before hitting it repeatedly. We sigh. "Yeah. Make sure she doesn't wake my neighbors, please. I'll be good here."

She relents, smiling again before throwing a little wave and retreating down the hall. "Thanks for the personal invite," she calls.

I invited her, much to Carmen's disapproval. It's such a Carmen thing to not realize how exactly alike they are, just in opposite ways. Macey's evolving never hurt anyone. She did it because she wanted to be something better. I never would've thought it possible before this year, but there's something about Macey Abrams that pulls me in and pushes me to learn more than the surface level qualities I do now.

A few minutes pass when I realize I'm still smiling like an idiot, staring at the spot Macey just occupied like she never left.

What can I say? I'm intrigued.