𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔, cassie howard

EMPTYSWIMMINGPOOLS.

✫A night ago, pt.2:

"It's an amazing couch, for real! What was your excuse for not giving it to me, again?"

Every time Cassie wanted to talk without having any members of her family around, or whenever she was too annoyed to handle her mom, Selena and her would go to the brunette's place.

It wasn't a very common situation, but it's not that they had something against the idea. The Howard house had just become a regular hangout for pretty much every ocassion.

Whenever anyone got to go to Selena's home it automatically was an experience.

It was probably the feeling of foreignness; the sense of adventure, even slight nervousness, at anything that hasn't been properly explored and discovered before. Still not knowing exactly what to expect, still not extremely familiar.

The Howard's place had lost the chance of something unexpected happening. They knew it all well already, which was something to say since the variation of possibilities with that family was vast enough.

Nevertheless, Selena's small place was pretty peaceful, and even though there wasn't much to expect, the strangeness of it was still there.

The remanent shyness in the interactions with someone you just met and still is sort of a stranger to you. That at the moment makes you want to slap yourself at how clumsy you are being, but at the same time, in a corner of your brain causes amusement and enjoyment at the freshness and thrill of feeling something remotely different than what you're used to feeling.

The first time Cassie was at the place she specifically noticed the triplet of settees; two of them black, and a red one. It was different than the other ones, though. It didn't seem to go there.

There was no other hint of red or something to match with it on any visible parts of the empty looking new space. It didn't seem in such a good state, or at least not as much as every other piece of furniture. Everything seemed new and in harmony but that one part.

It was an afternoon and they were supposed to do an assignment. It was afterschool hours so Lexi had to tag along with her, Selena was still the new girl so Maddy had to want to explore some of a new life instead of going to Cassie's. She sat at the red sofa uncounsciously, and Selena sat by her side, since it was the most aproximable seat for her.

They ended up procrastinating the work for hours, product of Maddy's questions at the girl sitting beside her, and the surprisingly amusing and funny answers.

Months later, by the time they were actually friends, Cassie asked about it and learned Selena had found it in a thrift store at a very small price, and it was tradition that she chose at least one item for the room furnishing.

Since her uncle was a bit of a control obsessive guy, she liked to choose something that would fuck up all the previously thought aesthetic and would take all the attention. Using the power of a single item to take down everything else. She knew it was effective.

She also learned Selena wasn't much of a dependent person, or at least she didn't enjoy to seem like one. Her only family member was at work ninety percent of the few times she visited.

She chose the red couch to ruin something her uncle had put effort on, which would seem like a revengeful act, but Selena liked that it was noticeable, that it stood up. Something that would take anyone's attention away from everything else to her piece of contribution.

Maybe she felt lonely and that was her way to feel like she gets attention, Cassie thought at first. And she kept believing that theory for a few moments, only until Selena started telling a different kind of joke or described situations already described distinctly, like the variation of her answers for the settee situation every time she asked.