Asterisk*

Butterflies and Bellyaches*

*In relation to the pain in your stomach 

Wings spread,

and flutter,

fall off,

and then

Die.

Apollo

Butterflies are truly beautiful creatures. Majestic, even. They spent so much of their lives as caterpillars, just munching away at leaves. Munching away at all their problems. Spinning a cocoon to hide from them. Emerging as a new person, wings equipped with the beauty of design. They flutter away elegantly, gracefully. Migrating away from every care in the world. Fragile, yet strong. Unstoppable. Gliding in the wind, placed on top of a wilting flower. Once the time came, the fall from grace was done with utter care, a light breeze and a cascade downwards.

The phrase butterflies in your stomach is such a weird one. They're so perfect in every way, there's no way they would end up in my stomach. Rather, it was more like bees in my stomach, stinging every corner until I messed something up.

I arrived at the college early this morning. My roommate was already there before me, sitting on the floor with candles around him. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was "cleansing" the room, so I just let him do whatever the fuck he was doing because if nothing, it smelled good. Classes started tomorrow, so I tried to get all of my clothes organized as quickly as I could. I was somewhat of a neat freak, courtesy of my mom. She had every Swiffer model you could imagine, sweeping and vacuuming the floor at random times because she was convinced it was dirty. Now, I had to clean everything, otherwise I felt like I was flipping out.

I ended up leaving the room after a while because my roommate started using candles that no longer smelled good. I made my way to this little smoothie shop in the corner of the street, just a few minutes walk from the dorm. This was definitely where you could find me for the rest of the year. Smoothies and milkshakes were definitely my comfort drinks. There was a different flavor for every mood. Sour flavors for when I feel bad and want to feel worse. Strawberry or blueberries for when I want something simple. Mango when I want to have the perfect day. Milkshakes and smoothies can be as deep as the ocean when a person allows them to.

Today, I ordered strawberry banana, just because I was feeling something classic to start the day off. I had managed to get a little table to myself in what was a pretty crowded area. I had already taken out my laptop and started to work on some paperwork that I needed to turn in.

"Hey, can we sit here?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied, pushing a chair over to them with my leg.

"I'm Kyra, by the way. This is Jinx. I found this one when he bumped into a bathroom door and fell into my lap."

"Yeah, I guess she was just my knight in shining armor," he told me in the most monotone voice, sipping at whatever drink he had in his hand.

"Jinx?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Well it was James after my grandpa," he explained, propping his chin up with his hand. "Then he was convicted of murder. Now it's Jinx."

"Oh, damn. I'm Apollo."

"What are you studying Apollo?" Kyra asked, checking the time on her phone.

"Forensic science. You?"

"Law. We'll probably have some overlapped classes then."

"Look at the big brains at this table," Jinx pointed out, lightly shoving Kyra like they knew each other forever. "I'm studying archeology. Making my childhood dinosaur train fantasy come to life."