Chorus Line ｡ Ricky Bowen

― two

02. | FIRST DAY BLUES
❝ he's ken and you're like, 
not barbie.❞

          FIRST DAYS WERE HARD. During the summertime, Elizabeth could pretend she was not so lonely. She could wake up late and roll around in her sheets while she scrolled through her socials and eventually ended up reading fanfiction about her favourite characters until midday. She could fill her long hours playfully bickering with Romero and forcing him to babble on about his upcoming novel and finally, when the sun was setting over the houses, she would grab Stitch's collar and walk the quiet streets hoping she would catch a glimpse of her dreamy neighbour, Christian Cadaval, tossing a basketball around on his driveway. 

          With summertime dead and buried, Elizabeth was forced to battle through the hours between dawn and dusk in the middle of East High, a place she would not daydream about once she was free from the packed hallways and loud cafeteria. A place in which reminded her that, yes she was friendless and she was not very good at anything. 

          High school kind of sucked. First days kind of sucked too.

         When Elizabeth arrived home, deflated and exhausted, her cousin was waiting on the patio for her. Romeo was wearing his favourite slippers and dressing gown, not even bothered by the fact he looked like an eighty-year-old grandfather. "How was your first day, cus?"

          "Do you want me to lie?"

          Romeo simply chucked, watching as Lizzie dropped her bag to the floorboards and bent down to ruffle Stitch's head. Her Boxer, was maybe her favourite person, who was not a person, in her life. He gave her a muffled huff in greeting and attempted to lick her face. 

          "Nini Salazar-Roberts and Ricky Bowen broke up," Lizzie finally said, combing hair from her eyes. Romeo joined her on the steps, closing his eyes to soak up the dying sunlight on his face. He spent too much time cooped up in the house. 

          "Who are they? Friends?"

         "Just kids in my grade," Lizzie replied softly, Stitch lowering his chin to rest on her thigh. She stroked his fur kindly. "Apparently, Nini started dating E.J. Caswell at drama camp, or something. It's very scandalous news."

          "Where'd you hear this gossip?" Romeo liked to pretend he was above gossip, but he really did love hearing about the lives of teenagers. He could use that material in his novel. "Did you make friends on your first day? Good for you."

          "No, no new friends. I spent lunch in the library. They've got a new section on Greek mythology—" Lizzie noticed how her cousin's eyes glazed over a little bit. He hated mythology. "Anyway, the gossip is all over the school and I overheard it in the bathrooms. Some senior girl was crying about the news because she thought she had a chance with E.J."

          Stitch groaned loudly, like he was listening to her story too. Lizzie returned to patting his short fur and Romeo stretched out his back, making a big display of it too. "Your school is riddled with teen angst. It's very good material, you know, for my novel. Tell me more. Wait, let me just grab my notebook." 

          "My social life, or lack of it, is not some plot point for your novel. Aren't you writing about vampires?" Lizzie wished her life was more entertaining than it really was. Maybe a sparkling vampire would do her some good. 

          Romeo pulled his dressing gown closer to his limbs with a huff. "Yes, but they're teenage vampires and weirdly enough, they do have social lives which include cute boys and bitchy girls. I need real material to bounce ideas from. You know, they say write what you know."