A glance

Chapter 1

"Fuck." That's my best friend, Dani, expressing her limited vocabulary. It's one of the only words she believes can replace all others. Because of this, my aunt has no idea I'm here, and certainly not that she is too. "Dude, I broke my watch." "Don't you have about 67 more?" She was a watchaholic, maybe it's the puns, or the fact that she wrote everything down by the millisecond. She kept a journal, not a nice one of course because she prided herself of everything that looked like nothing. She found beauty in pain, constellations in scars. That's why I love her. To give a little bit of retrospect we were at the roller rink. The only place that I seemed to detest more than my own house. But Dani knows that I'd do anything for her, so she takes advantage of my sweet spot. And I can't say that I mind. I stared at her picking at the soggy funnel cake, just now realizing how strange she looked. Her sun kissed blond hair contrasting with the neon green scrunchies grasping for dear life, as you pear further, her Van Halen shirt came into sight, along with the trailing down of her raggedy old Jean shorts. Don't get any ideas, I told you she likes the old. And that ideology matched her taste in men. Speaking of men. "Oh my god, it's Paolo! He is so cute!" "You need to get over him, it usually only takes you a couple days to get over a guy." "Yeah about that." She shot me a glare, the same glare as when she copied and pasted my essay, the same glare as when she set me up a tinder, the same glare that made me hate her. "You didnt!" A small smirk made its way across her lips as quickly as Prince Charming in shiny leather jacket took a seat next to the damsel in distress. "AJ what's up? I didn't know I'd find two hot chicks in one booth, I guess that makes me the duff huh?" Oh god. And I give her the glance, the same glance I give her when she copied and pasted my essay, the same glare as when she set me up a tinder, the same glare that made her hate me back. I can't blame her, he was hot. If it weren't for his limited IQ and immature reasoning, I would maybe start to consider the possibility of him swooping her into his carriage and driving away. But unfortunately, the carriage turns into a pumpkin at midnight. And midnight happen to have been the day Paolo was born. "Hey, we're gonna go, do you mind AJ?" Instead of giving her a point blank answer she didn't want to hear, I texted her one.

\Me: No/

She looked up at me confusingly, even though we both knew there was nothing to be confused about.

\Dani <3: I promised him that we would go out. You know I like him babe/

\Me: you know he's not good for you/

\Dani <3: that funnel cake isn't good for your waistline but I'm not judging/

I scoffed because I knew my opinion wouldn't matter when it came to him.

\Me: fine, but condoms?/

\Dani <3: strawberry flavored/

\Me: spare me the details/

She leaned over the bright yellow booth and landed a kiss on my cheek, leaving the same mark on me that will soon be on. I'd rather not think about it. I stood up and gave me a hug, as I gave a sharp snarl straight into his dumb sexy eyes. My best friend holding onto my waist with her head resting under my chin, 5'2 brought with it strange maturity. Paolo dug his scared hands into his pants. Something Dani marveled about. The number of chai tea lattes I downed whilst listening to the manifesto of Paolos' hands. Dani snatched his palm out from his pockets she'd be digging into later on and strolled out through the door. The bell rang with the same familiar sound of abandonment.
The same sound that I heard 10 years prior when my first meeting with my birth mother morphed into my last. Lost hope.