Home Run || j.m.b [ON HOLD]

09 | bubble cup

Let me tell you the meaning of roller coasters.

A roller coaster is a noun. In the dictionary, its meaning is - I quote - "an amusement park attraction that consists of a light railroad track with many tight turns and steep slopes, on which people ride in small fast open cars". Don't believe me? Google it.

However,  there is more than just one meaning to 'roller coaster'.

According to Professor Alissa Davis - in other words, me - roller coaster can be something that you feel emotionally, or just life in general. In a roller coaster, there is a track (your life story), there are the carts (the people in your life you live with) and the ups and downs and the loops (the events happening in your life).

Woah, that was almost as deep as the Mariana trench.

Me, sitting in the corner of my room, staring blankly at my phone screen is like me getting stuck mid-loop in a roller coaster. It's almost making me sick in a way and I know, once everything is running smoothly again, it will take time to get back up.

I feel so philosophical.

Lizzie has not noticed a thing and is probably thinking I'm frozen because of watching an amazing video I came across on YouTube.

No, Lizzie, I'm not.

"Come on, Lissa," Lizzie whines. She jumps on to the spinny chair she's dragged into my room from Colt's and starts spinning on it. "Let's go to Bubble Cup! You're spending too much time on your phone, your eyes are going to hurt!"

"Look, you're not even blinking," she adds, waving her hands in my direction.

I don't say a thing.

The only thing stopping me from staring at my phone for even longer is when Lizzie pulls my hand away and drags me down the stairs. "Come on," she tells me, clearly annoyed. "Bubble Cup is the answer to everything."

We shuffle past Colt whose gaze is following us out the corner of his eyes, and out the door. I hear a faint "get me one too" but I'm pretty sure it's just the breeze passing.

Bubble Cup isn't that far from my house. That is, if you take the bus and it's not running late. It doesn't matter anyway, Bubble Cup - as Lizzie said - might actually be the answer.

We find a booth near the back and order our usuals - mine being lychee slushie and jelly while Lizzie's being nice cold cappuccino. There isn't many people here today, which is a bit of a relief if you ask me.

"So ..." Lizzie starts while sipping on her drink, eyeing me past the top of her lashes. "You looked a little tense, what's up?"

"Nothing," I say.

Lizzie ties her red hair up out of frustration. "Tell me, Lissa," she sighs.

"It's stupid."

"Nothing is stupid."

"You'll call me over-dramatic," I reason. I try to relieve the headache slowly coming by stirring my drink in small circles.

The girl in front of me frowns. "If it makes you sad then I don't see why you're over-dramatic."

I drown myself in silence. My mind drifts to my phone in my pocket, recalling what happened earlier. My heart clenches once again, a knife twists slowly in my stomach and I grimace. Lizzie, who saw my facial expression, frowns even more.

"Lissa ..."

I remember earlier, when Lizzie was in my bathroom and a notification peeped through my phone. Looking at it, my heart did a leap when I find out that I received a message from Joey - after months of no contacting.

Obviously, I answered quickly. I replied a 'hey' back and maybe made it seem to desperate by adding a million emojis after.

Okay, okay, it was only two but ... now that I think about it, it seemed a bit too much.

I started to worry, Joey usually replied in an instant. Being my stupid self, I decided to shake it off and started to forget about it.

That is, until I received another message almost a whole half hour later. I waited for a few minutes before opening it. Maybe I shouldn't've opened it to avoid being heartbroken. No, it's not a 'oh my crush likes someone else' type of heartbroken. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it, all I know that it's something else.

Sorry, it read, I was dared by a friend.

I felt like crying then. I actually legitimately thought that we were friends. Of course, my hopes flew too high - why would a person with a higher social status than me want to be friends with a normal person?

Lizzie looked at me with concern. "Alissa, tell me," she whispers.

I think I'm over-reacting as I feel tears welling up in my eyes.

"I ..." I start to say, my voice cracking at the end. I can't say it.

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Lizzie tells me. She reaches out to hug me, rocking me steadily as one tear rolls down my cheek. Lizzie whispers it over and over, making me cry even more.

Don't cry. This isn't a big thing.

Then why do I feel so ... crushed?

"I - I thought that ... you know," I try to speak, explaining everything to Lizzie as she pulls me tighter into the hug, "that he really wanted to be friends. He sounded so real."

I don't even know how I managed to let that out.

"It's stupid, isn't it?" I say quietly, disappointed with myself. I pull away from Lizzie's hug and continue stirring my drink, wiping one last tear.

"Let me see what he said," Lizzie says.

Silence comes over Lizzie as she flicks through my phone, her brows furrowed, her eyes concentrated. "This - he is stupid," Lizzie tells me and I can see that she's deleting the message. "I don't see why he'd do that."

"Let's just hope he got hacked, okay, sweetie," she smiles encouragingly at me, "I totally get how you feel right now, one hundred per cent. But there's always another side to everything, let's hope the other side is what really happened."

Nodding, I see how true her words are.

I can't help but feel disappointed either way.

•

if any of you haven't noticed - which i'm sure most haven't anyway - i just posted a new story! it's only the prologue, i know that perfectly. i'm going to start continuing it after i finish 'action', which is very soon. if you're interested, then go have a read! if you aren't, then it's okay:) everyone has different tastes and i totally respect that.

xx nita