Rami & Friends

The Breakthrough (Sebastian)

The time has finally come.

Rami is under the covers in his bed with ear buds dangling out of his ears, probably listening to Queen or something stupid like that. He has a slip of paper in his hands, typed. Front and back. He is studying it closely.

I feel bad for lashing out at him earlier... except I feel the complete opposite of that. What kind of "newfound" friend does that to another, going to the ice cream museum without them. The audacity!

"What's that?" I ask peering over at the paper. He doesn't answer. His music is probably drowning me out. I shake him, hard.

"What?" he asks, confused, as he takes off his headphones.

"What is that?" I ask, pointing at the paper he is holding.

"The monologue from Το αυγό αγόρ," he says, as if I understand. I don't.

"What's that?" I scoff, pretending to care.

"A Greek play," he says as if he is almighty and knows the answer to everything. "It means "The Egg Boy"."

"What?!" I nearly die of laughter. He doesn't, probably because he has no soul.

"It's a one act play about a boy with an egg-shaped head who sneaks out of his house and runs away to become a gas station attendant," he says. "It's incredibly moving."

"It sounds stupid," I say honestly. "Why are you studying??"

"I have to present it on Friday," he says. "We've studied it all semester in my "study of plays" class."

"Cool," I says as I throw on another sweatshirt because I can, and head out the door.

"Where to?" Rami calls from his bed.

The cult... I can't tell him.

"A study group," I lie. "Just headed to the library."

"Have fun," I hear him say as I sneak through the door.

The night is incredibly still and quiet. It's awfully creepy. I hear zero talk on my way to the boiler room. Just the rustling of tree branches in the wind.

'She's in love!'
'She's in love!'
'She's in love!'
'Yeah! Yeah'

I hear this from outside the boiler room door. People are singing.. with background music. Did Katherine trick me into coming to a karaoke night?

I slip in through the door, but nobody in the room even notices. Story of my life.

"Alright," I hear Katherine declare. She's standing on a chair, and everyone is doing jazz hands around her. Did I miss something? "Thanks to that beautiful rendition of "She's in Love" from the Broadway adaption of Disney's The Little Mermaid, I have come to my senses... I'm in love."

The crowd-a girl with stringy blonde hair, a boy with curly brown hair, and a girl with short black hair all cheer for Katherine. Love?

"With who?" asks the girl with the short black Peter Pan haircut.

"Rami Malek," she says. I nearly throw up. That guy is meant to be hated.

Stupid ice cream museum.

"Weird bicycle seat jawline kid?" asks the boy. "He's so awkward."

"Well, so am I," Katherine Steele says, placing her fist under her chin. She's so "quirky".

"He's a jerk," I blurt out from the doorway. "He's an awful friend."

"I thought you didn't have any-" The blonde girl is interrupted by Katherine. Thank God.

"Sebastian," Katherine says, shocked. "Thanks for joining us."

"Sure," I say. "So why the confession of love and big karaoke number. Weird thing to do at a cult meeting, don't you think?"

They. All. Laugh.

"That cult thing," Katherine laughs. "It's all a joke to make people think we're weird!"

"We are weird!" Blonde hair girl says.

"We're a musical theatre "book club" thing," Katherine can't seem to pull herself together. "We have meetings to talk about musicals."

Worst. Decision. Ever.

As they laugh, I realize one thing- I am murderous; ready to kill. I have two people in mind-Rami Malek and Katherine Steele. First thing on the agenda, piss Rani off. Make the hatred a bit more mutual, and when the time comes...

Katherine will rush to his rescue and I'll be able to kill them both.

It's my only solution, really.