Other Than This

2

There were a few things Melanie was certain of:

1. The "estaba en Narnia, tu que sabes, chismosa" vine will never not make her cry laugh.

2. She would never be taller than 5'5".

3. Stretching calmed her down, no matter how much she hated it.

4. Learning to cook was going to take forever because her dad was white and her mom never measured anything.

Instead of doing what she usually does, and watching number one on the list first thing in the morning, she instead decided to go with the third on the list. It was the Saturday after the premiere and for some reason she was still on edge about the conversation between her and her Tio Chris. Instead of overthinking, she sat on the floor of her room. She put her feet together and pulled them closer to her, into a butterfly position. Melanie rolled her shoulders back and straightened out her back and focused on slowing her breathing. She pulled herself down, until her forehead met her feet. When she mentally reached 20 seconds, she rolled up and straightened her back before lifting up her arms and repeating the process a few more times. Melanie got into a rhythm with every position she was in. She could feel herself disconnecting from the nerves that were trying so hard to be noticed. Melanie ended stretching with her straddle and proceeded to roll over onto her stomach and grab her phone. Almost an hour of stretching seemed to do the trick.

After a while of absentmindedly scrolling through Instagram, Melanie pushed herself off of the floor and walked over to her desk. Her backpack was sitting in the same place she had thrown it the day before when she got home from school. She rolled her eyes before pulling the bag up from one of its strap and flinging it onto her back. Melanie trudged over to her door and waved it open before starting towards the living room. On the way, she opened the pantry and grabbed the peanut butter and an apple. There was a slight pause before she fell back onto the couch at the same moment she realized that she hadn't grabbed a knife from the kitchen. She rolled her eyes, this time with slightly more sass, before pushing herself up and going to the kitchen to grab what she'd forgotten. I could have jus- Melanie stopped the thought before it could come into fruition. As if to contradict herself and the self-control she had mustered, the moment she was back on the couch, she waved off the cap of the peanut butter and moved it to the coffee table. It's a small thing. It doesn't matter. She had to reassure herself. Don't sweat the small things, right?

Melanie had spent almost an entire hour taking notes on the different stages of child development. Her hand was cramping and there was ink on random parts of her hand. Instead of going on to her calculus homework, she reached next to her and grabbed the t.v. control that was there. Justifying it in her mind, One hour of notes is worth a 30 minute television break. She clicked on the television and was not a bit surprised to find that the volume was on five. Her mom did not find it necessary to be able to hear the news when she watched it in the mornings. Melanie's finger was above the channel button when she played catch up with what her eyes had already read.

BREAKING NEWS: Mutant Behind California Fires

Instead of the channel button being pressed, the volume button was.

"Heavy speculation over the California fires from early this year led many people looking into it to a dead end. After many months, and the help of the freedom of information act, we can now confirm that the fires were not caused naturally. The fires were set by a person whose name was redacted from all of the files that were given. In the report, we found this statement from said person: 'I just snapped my fingers, literally snapped my fingers, and then there was a fire all around me. I don't know how it happened. I promise I don't.' With this report, came an examination that concluded any time this person experienced high levels of friction, fire would quote 'come out of his skin'. There has been no official statement released by any intelligence agency or the government."

Melanie's eyes fell to the peanut butter cap that still sat on the coffee table.

It was just something small, right?

***

me? updating something other than girls like girls? i guess it's more likely than you think

who is ready for endgame? i'm not. i have tickets to a thursday night showing and thinking about going again a week later. and i know that  i am going to bawl