The following creative writing piece is a modern myth, written by contributing writer Kelsyn Stefanik.
Water slapped into my eyes, clouding my vision instantly, forcing me to hold my hand like a visor in order to see. Humidity had cloaked my skin as soon as I stepped outside. Hurricane weather. Good thing my friend’s house was only four blocks away. I started to walk but then quickly changed to a run, lowering my head as if I was a football player ready to make the tackle.
Her house was on the corner of our quiet street, the first one you saw when you turned onto Preakness Place. All of the houses in our neighborhood had different themes to them, as if you would see them in a different place than here . Hers was desert, like something in Arizona or New Mexico, with its sand colored stucco walls and the Navajo red tiled roof with desert palms fanning to the side of the front door. No, it definitely didn’t belong in the tropical and humid climate of Tampa, Florida. But I never told her that, it would only give her something else to say about me.
It has been a rough year, moving during COVID and trying to get some friends, feeling that you will never get used to your home. I was glad that Maya, Addy, and Madi (try to not get those names mixed up on the first day) took me under their wings on the first day of school, but I don’t know if now I’m so grateful. There’s something going on that I don’t know about, inside jokes that seem a little too inside, jokes about me that are repeatedly brought up, and hangouts that seem to happen whenever we all say we’re too busy. But I’m hoping that this will work out, hence why I’m going to this movie night at all. And plus I love movies and popcorn (who doesn’t?) so I thought it was as good an excuse as any to get out of the house.
I stepped into the enclosed space at the front door, excited yet nervous, my hair a frizzy mop (I quickly put it in a bun, so much for wanting to leave it down), my red plaid pajama pants gripping onto my legs, and my black t-shirt half wet and half dry due to my bushy hair covering most of it. I pushed the small ceramic button of her doorbell, hearing it echo dimly inside.
Maya quickly flung open the door, cheeks tinged with pink from probably running to the door. Her straw-colored hair tied up in a bun much better looking than mine, and her clear glasses were pushed up tight against her small nose.
“Kelsyn!!! You’re early!!” Enthusiastic as ever, she was like the glue that connected our group, oozing over fights and our small quarrels.
“Only by two minutes, I ran here to escape the rain.” I said, panting slightly from the small run, “I brought the popcorn though so I figured that it would take some time to get ready.”
“Oh thanks!! I’ll go and set it up!!”
We continued to talk like that as we walked into her house, which was very open and echoed slightly if you ran through it (which I have). Her living room was right beside her kitchen, which was good during sleepovers because we didn’t have to go very far for snacks. We finished popping the first bag of popcorn (out of four) when the doorbell chimed.
Racing to the door and slipping all along the way, Maya got there first, flinging the door the same way she did for me, revealing it to be Addy, my tall, ginger, and other best friend. She was always grinning, looking ready to bounce off the walls.
“Maya, did you hear about Madi? She’s walking here, and you know how far she lives away. She wants us to meet her halfway so she doesn’t have to walk alone.”
We all lived in the same neighborhood, which was very convenient for all of our parents, but our neighborhood was huge and had several different sections of it, making Madi’s walk around 5-10 minutes long, maybe less if she ran, and even though she was a amazing dancer she wasn’t exactly the best runner we’ve ever seen.
“Should we bring an umbrella?” I asked, wanting my clothes to at least become semi-dry at the end of this night.
Uncomfortable silence.
“Why don’t you stay and make the popcorn and everything? We’re only gonna be gone for a few minutes,” Maya smiled, as if I was a kid asking for permission.
My heart sank. Why couldn’t I come? The popcorn wasn’t going to take long, it was only a minute per bag. But I didn’t want to be the whiner, I hated being that. So I smiled and agreed, watching them find and grab umbrellas and instantly battling the reckless wind beating against them as they walked outside and slammed the door shut.
I reluctantly headed back to the now gloomy kitchen. I unwrapped the bag of popcorn and slipped it into the microwave, turning on the timer as I glumly watched it start to spin. But my eye caught a glimmer in the warm white light, it was Maya’s white glitter phone case, meaning she left it behind.
Curiosity slammed into me at once, almost convincing me to reach out and grab it. What if they really were talking about me? I had the perfect opportunity to find out. The microwave beeps impatiently but I paid no attention to it. I cautiously grabbed her phone and entered her password (her birthday). It unlocked, showing her recent messages, including a group chat with her, Madi, and Addy. And not me.
I opened that one, looking over at the acid green bubbles. Clothes, food, boring girl stuff that I paid no attention to, and then my name in that basic lettering appeared on screen. I quickly read through it. Annoying, too lost in her thoughts, ugly (my cheeks flushed in red hot anger), flat as a door (my whole face heated in embarrassment now), the words kept hitting me with a fast and deadly blow, knocking the air out of me, leaving me gasping for the suddenly-toxic air.
How dare they! How DARE they! They knew nothing about me, they have only known me for 3 months! And yet they still found something to talk about, making me look idiotic and stupid for ever trusting them. Now I can see why they taught Pandora’s mistake as a lesson. Curiosity is a sin, words that my parents told me, rang like her stupidly optimistic doorbell in my head. But is it? Would I have wanted to live my life trusting people that stab me behind my back? No, I thought, just get through tonight and deal with it later. But the words on that mindless screen was already planting self-conscious thoughts into my head, making me wonder if all those things were true, and what if people really didn’t like me, what if–
The door opens and slams again, laughter spilling out of it. I quickly exited out of her messages and slammed it down on the counter, yanking the microwave door open (after a very angry beep it made at me) and poured the popcorn into the second bowl as my so-called friends packed into the kitchen.
“Hey! Popcorn’s almost ready, I only have two more bags to go.”
“What were you doing during the other few minutes we were gone?” Maya asked cautiously, as if already suspecting why her phone was several feet away from where it used to be.
“Oh, I had to use the bathroom, and then I caught up playing with Marley because she was begging for attention,” We all knew I preferred to play with the cat rather than watch a movie or play a game.
I smiled a fake smile, hoping that it would pass as a real one. Hoping that it didn’t show that I knew everything evil they had said about me. No, I would wait and see how it would all play out. Hoping secretly that they might change their ways and we would all just live drama-free. Hope, which would remain with me until I chose to move away from them, finally accepting that they couldn’t be like that.