Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 132933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 665(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 665(@200wpm)___ 532(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Colored pencils scatter the surface of our desk, my contribution to the disorder, and I slip them in a tin canister, giving my laptop more room.
Stairs squeak outside, then a strong knock comes before the door creaks open. Is it him? I find myself on the tips of my toes, anticipation lifting me higher.
“Hey, roomie.” It’s Sulli. Drenched in sweat, my cousin brushes dark brown strands of hair from her face and enters our room.
Sullivan Minnie Meadows should have been my best friend since birth. All the signs were there. Even our zodiacs say, these two are a superb match. Her Aquarius to my Sagittarius. She’s only two years older. We’re both girls. And she believes in astrology like me.
Only, we weren’t always the closest of the close. Cobalt boys—they snuck in there and claimed those spots. She has Beckett. I have Eliot and Tom.
But Sulli and I just needed the right cosmic event in order to circle around and become the friends we were always meant to be. She’s retired from competitive swimming. No longer pressed for time. And I have all the time in the world now that I’m out of high school’s death clutch.
“Hey, hey.” I dump the last of the pencils in the tin. “You doing a thing with Beckett?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Sulli grabs a teal bath towel from our closet. “Did his brothers tip you off or something? Or maybe you’re just magical and know all the fucking things.”
“Not magical, unfortunately,” I sing-song, leaning on the desk. Singing makes most awful realities sound better. More fantastical. I guess that’s why I do it so much. That, and it’s just fun. “But I do know some things, I guess. This time because of Donnelly.” I pick up my phone. “He texted. He said he’d show me the tattoo sketch while he’s here.”
Sulli comes over and elbows me. “Fucking finally.”
I can’t help but smile.
She gathers her sweaty hair in a messy bun, towel under her armpit. “Haven’t you been waiting for it for eternity?”
A week. It doesn’t seem like that long, in the grand scheme of infinite time, but I might’ve mentioned it every day to Sulli.
“An eternity isn’t long enough,” I say quietly, quoting a passage from The Chasm of Elsewhere, a short story I wrote. I’m not sure if it’s any good, or if that line is overused and cliché, but it came to mind.
Sulli hasn’t read The Chasm of Elsewhere. Only one person has. Her confusion is a blip before she says, “An eternity is way too fucking long for me. If Kits made me a necklace or a drawing or something, I’d probably be calling him every fucking day asking for status updates.” Eliot and Tom joke that Akara and Sulli are the physical embodiment of the outdated Facebook poke.
He pokes her. She pokes back. And vice versa. But I see something romantic brewing. I…mistakenly told my friends that.
“You think they’re fucking?” Eliot asked me.
“I didn’t say that,” I muttered, and he saw me shy away from the topic, so he dropped it. I love that about Eliot. He understands loyalty between our families like complex threads sewn together, and he’s unwilling to yank too toughly on a strand between me and Sulli—knowing our loyalty to each other could unravel if he makes me share everything on my mind. A lot of which is backed by feelings, not proof.
Before she leaves, Sulli invites me to hang out with her and Beckett if things with Donnelly end early.
I hope it doesn’t. I just tell her I’ll let her know, then she’s off to shower.
With only one shared bathroom in the townhouse, it really feels like dorm living. It’s college without the hassle of being on campus. The whole roommate experience with Sulli has been a fun chapter in my life, one that I’m not excited to ever close.
Once I change into a pair of comfy cotton shorts (better to display the leg that I want inked), I return to my laptop. Clicking open Fictitious, my favorite fanfic site, I scroll through some popular fandom tags.
Harry Potter, Marvel, The Fourth Degree, Star Wars, Beneath a Strong Sentiment, and Teen Wolf are among the most active and viewed. Writers can post original work too, but the only original fics that gain traction are from writers who first gained popularity with a fanfic.
I click into my most recent fic.
Username: galaxxygirlx
Title: How It Started
I scroll to the bottom of the fic and expand the comments section. There are only two.
LokiCanHaveMyBBs: OH MY GOD! I Love this already!! Please keep going!!
TillieStayzor79: It’s all right. You could use more editing.
TillieStayzor79 isn’t wrong. I just…haven’t figured out how to hire someone to edit my work without exposing my username. Family and security are the only ones who know about my username and that I’m even on Fictitious. For the sake of my mental health, I’d like to keep it that way.