(The next day)
"He was like: you are an ugly tomato. No one needs you. You are a disgrace to the whole planet and you should be eliminated from the world's society. You are no more my friend. I'm gone forever." I wiggle my arms erratically to the sides, out of breath trying to explain all consequences of the yesterday's epic show aka my heartbreaking reality to the friend beside me as we stroll through the school canteen, adamant to scrounge some snacks as for both of us it is more of a law than a random fad to hang around here after the PE class.
Venus. The last person left in my tiny comradeship circle which is not imaginary. She deserves a reward for hanging on that long and I'm not even exaggerating. I never do... do I?
She almost crawls on the floor, exhausted like a squeezed lemon, still unable to understand what dimension she is trapped in while I've been vigorously mimicking Dorian all this time.
If you look at Venus, she is completely out of energy juice, I'm on the other side hyped as hell.
Even one hundred crunch exercise repetition would not be enough for me to burst all of my anger out and calm the heck down in the end. If not all these people I would already begin fighting the air.
"Are you sure he said it exactly like that?" She cuts me off with a pensive note threading through her silvery voice.
"No..." I snap a giddy response."Not exactly, but the concept is almost the same."
A commotion of hungry students surrounds us when we stick in the line to make our order but they swiftly scatter away to the different spots of this spacious room which makes me sigh in relief.
"Oh, this girl has such a stunning pink dress." I gasp in a bit hushed manner. The glitters reflect in my eyes as I freeze in the motion keeping them wide open, enthralled by the shiny sequins covering the dress of a random girl.
"And a boyfriend," I add a jealous remark, letting a frustrating breath out when a guy slinging his arm around her waist comes into the view as they move past me, obviously too joyous together to pay any heed to the world.
"No, no, no. Don't look there, queen. You are now more susceptible to the trauma than usually. You should not overthink and just turn to that side better." Venus puts her hand around my shoulder, forcing me to spin in the opposite direction. She throws her blonde silky ringlets from her face and then returns to scanning her eyes through the notes she had scribbled down for the physics test.
If only that was the one thing agitating me.
A random guy's whiny speech resonates from afar as he knocks his heavy backpack near the table occupied by a big throng of some cool kids and joins them. This noise is hard to ignore.
"Dude. Did you really do that? No, you didn't! Oh my God. You chose the shittiest colour out of all the colours ever. I'm really disappointed you didn't listen to my opinion."
One. Question. Why people have to speak so loud? Do they really like to share their problems with the world?
I pretend I play on my phone but when I squint my eyes up I see him point a mocking gesture at the boy in black who is slouching in the middle of the couch.
"I don't know. I just liked it so
I did." He pokes him back a dopey reply in a monotonous way as he ruffles the purple, as it seems to me, top of his messy mane.
"I know you want to show everyone you are different and maybe you think you are the coolest over here but bro...that's not the best way you could do that. That's really: hashtag ridiculous." The same bulky and loud guy with rude customs continues pestering him and it makes me question whether they do it out of boredom or ... ? They seem like friends and sit around one table so what is this even for?
"You didn't hear? I did it cuz I wanted that. That's the only reason. If you don't like, then don't look at me." The boy with purple mane retorts and the fiery argument soothes down as soon as it started.
Ugh.
At least for me when Venus stabs me with an elbow, interrupting my eavesdropping session. I shriek to realize she is already carrying our food away to the empty table. I hasten after her, hearing the group changing the topic to some studies-related matter.
Good for them.
"Considering the powers of your imagination, I don't doubt you might contort and blow some parts out of proportion. Could it be that you misunderstood something?" She muses, impatiently biting onto her burger after we sat in front of each other.
"No way. I'm not stupid. I heard everything right. I even thought he was fooling around but turns out he was not... I'm still shattered from what happened."
I drop down to the table and rest my head on the arms I folded, deepening in my thoughts while I stare at the vivid green walls that bring some note of happiness in the general formal environment. I really like our canteen though. It doesn't even look like a dining room where they serve some gross soups. No wonder everyone calls it green McDonald's.
Our school is kinda modern. Yo.
But sadness rushed back over me whenever I don't feel like busy with some random thoughts.
"I'll never get a boyfriend," I conclude.
"Calm down, Melanie. You are only sixteen." Venus makes me roll my eyes as she tries to rearrange me with a strict response but instead, I only remember my grandmom goading me with her 'You are already sixteen. You need to get a boyfriend.'
Who to believe now?
I bite my lip down and stretch my neck across the table. Something different finally hits me.
"I'm exhausted of hoping for something that is not gonna happen. What sense? Why do I even need to search for a boyfriend when I have so many fanfics left on my reading list. I'll just continue with that."
"Oh no... again you are getting involved in that cult. It honestly starts to terrify me and convince me that you indeed need a real boyfriend." She insists, giving me an incredulous look when she sees me typing on my phone.
"Are you hearing me? A real human boyfriend."
"Aha." I feign approval.
[A NEW BOOK IS ADDED TO YOUR LIBRARY]
Damn. She is good at reading minds, I swear. I know she knows that I'm searching for my old fanfic I stopped reading because everyone said it's too cringy. At least it had a really hot and sassy main character. Guess I need to learn more from him.
It's time to take a step back and resurrect the love for cringy stuff.
"What are you doing?" I say firmly when my friend's phone clicks multiple times in a row and when I bring my head up, I receive a flashlight dazzling me right in the face.
Ouch.
"Sorry, it was by mistake. I just wanted to take a few selfies." She tightens her lips in an apologetic smile. I shook my head at her clumsiness but don't judge her because my situation isn't any better.
Nonetheless, I would still not compare us. We are so similar and so different at once. She is way more social than me and I can't stop wonder: what if she ditches me when we ever get in an argument just like those boys did ten minutes ago. Or like Dorian did to me and all the other people in general. She will easily replace me with some other friends of hers but for me... that would be a problem of an enormous scale.
"Maybe you stop staring at your phone today. We are discussing some serious issues. You are a part of the science project as well. You forgot?" I recoil from my thoughts to the volume that raises up behind my back. My eyes widen as I hear the ruckus of familiar voices intensifying.
Again.
I sense the smell of blood...