THAT THING

At Chrysalis high. Angelica the fly and her friend Harmony the bee were walking down the hall and Angelica noticed that a lot of the other students were snuggling each other and holding each other close. One of the couples was her very muscular brother Josh, who was acting much more romantic than everyone else. Angelica frowned at him and looked back at Harmony who was distracted by playing a game on her phone. She looked up and down at her football jacket and green pants. Then she looked down at her pointy hairy legs longingly. As they got to the main hall, Angelica was overcome by the overwhelming smell of vanilla. She started coughing and ran to the water fountain. She looked back in a tired daze and noticed multiple paper decorations of pink and red hands joined together and a couple of gooey sticker hearts plastered everywhere. It was nauseatingly cute. Angelica went back to Harmony and asked her. “So uh, do you want to do anything tonight.” Harmony briefly looked up at Angelica before looking back at her phone.

“Nope, can’t really think of anything. But we can do something if you want to,” she said.

“Well, I guess maybe we could do, that thing,” Angelica said nervously.

“What thing?”

“You know. The thing everyone else usually does.”

“Oh. Ooooohh! Really, you do. But I thought you—”

“Just this one time, only for tonight. And no, no one’s pressuring me, I just wanna do this thing tonight.”

“Um, ok. And do you want to meet at your house or mine?”

“Yours, its quieter there.”

“Makes sense.”

The bell suddenly began ringing.

“Well, got to head to practice, see you later Angie!”

“Yeah, see you later!”

Angelica smiled briefly before she got a text from her mom. She read it and it said, “Are you finally gonna ask that girl you like on a proper date. ;).” She ignored it and started frowning. She went to first period while looking down the whole time.

After school, Angelica headed to Harmony’s pickup truck. It had a little dirt on it and the left mirror was almost about to fall off. Harmony was sitting on the hood while holding her phone up in the sky and looking at it. She looked to the right and fell off by surprise. Then she immediately ran to the passenger door and opened it while smiling embarrassingly. Angelica smiled while rolling her eyes as she walked to the truck. They began driving down Calloway Street. It was quiet for the first five minutes when Harmony asked. “So, why did you want to do this thing tonight. I thought you didn’t like this crap.”

“Well, I sort of do. I don’t want to do it all the time but sometimes I do,” Angelica said.

“Really, cause remember that time Josh came to biology class shirtless and sweaty, and he proposed to Lina to go to the autumn dance last year and everyone was smiling and happy for him. But you were turning away the whole time and your face was all red and flustered.” Harmony chuckled.

Angelica looked at her angry and yelled.

“That was because it was embarrassing to see my brother ask his date out to a dance half naked. He’s always showing off his body to everyone else. I don’t need to see it!”

“Ok, but what about when Mx. butterfly said they were getting married and everyone clapped and cheered for them, but you just stared at them.”

“I’m not a big fan of teacher romance. You know that.”

She folded her arms and looked out the window.

“What about that time I took you to Giorgio’s and you told me about your special feelings.”

“And I told you that I don’t feel like it most of the time. I can feel that way occasionally.”

“No, you can’t, you told me that you don’t feel that way at all. I know I have trouble paying attention, but I have good memory. Whatever your deal is today. Don’t lie to me. I know somethings up.”

She briefly looks at Angelica worried while Angelica looks at her feet and sighs sadly.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s just that, my mom keeps saying how cute we are as a couple and that if I wanna do the things my brother does she’d be super happy for me.”

“But you said you never wanted to do it?”

“Yeah, but my mom also said she really sees a lot of my brother in me, and I guess she just wants me to act normal already.”

Angelica looks down as if she were going to cry. Harmony stops the truck and pulls over to the side. She grabs Angelica’s left shoulder and says, “Hey, I love our relationship just the way it is. We don’t have to do things because your mom said we had to. I love you just the way you are.”

Angelica smiled and began to cry.

“And I love you too.”

They hug for a quick minute before Angelica notices an arrow up ahead that says “mall at the next right.” She stopped hugging and pointed to the arrow.

“Hey, let’s go there!” she yelled.

“Why?”

“I want to get something else, something better.”

“Okay? Whatever you want, Angie.”

Harmony drove to the right as the girls smiled at each other. That night at Harmony’s apartment. The girls were playing a zombie shooter called “Guts and gore” and Angelica said, “Told you this was an awesome game.” Harmony yelled, “Yeah, an awesome game to beat you at.”

“Guess again bitch, ha-ha.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Angelica paused and smiled.

“Happy Valentine’s da—”

Harmony started the game up again and began shooting.

“Cheater,” Angelica yelled.

They continued to play as the night went on.

Rory Quintanilla resides in Kissimmee Florida. His hobbies include writing, playing video games, and watching and supporting indie shows. Follow him on Instagram @raggydoll53.rite your text here...