This story is currently a work in progress and will be updated until complete.
“I’m glad you finally took my offer to hang out, Rav. We haven’t gone anywhere since like 2 years ago!”
Katherine excitedly spoke, too nervous to turn her head completely.
Her fluffy orange and red hair shivered as she shuffled in the passenger seat of her best friend’s modest sedan.
“Oh yeah, it has been a sec, huh?” Raven responded, blankly staring at the road, if not particularly focused on anything.
The sound of bass heavy post-punk made their communication a miracle in the first place.
“Yeah, I don’t know. You kinda just ghosted all of us after we graduated, you know? I never got to ask you how you were doing or hanging out or anything. You kinda changed but you seem alright. OH! Thanks for picking me up, by the way! I know I live pretty far away. I haven’t gotten my license yet.” Kat let loose a barrage of words, no sentence seeming to have any more importance than the last. She couldn’t help herself. This was her best friend, Raven! Any time she spent with her is time spent happy.
“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. We got the whole summer.” Raven coldly responded.
Kat blushed at the thought of spending the whole summer with her bestie. “Wow! So much time to hang out together!” She thought. Her mind slipped from a stretch of innocent admiration and desperate feelings of romance deep underneath.
Katherine Carter and Raven McCay shared the same classes for 3 of their 4 years in their small town high school. (That missing year, Katherine’s 3rd year, notably being the most miserable of Katherine’s life)
They met in an art class in their 2nd semester. It was the middle of the school day. After a week of shuffling chairs and getting used to the new class Kat realized she was sitting across a rather friendly looking black haired girl wearing a rare t-shirt of her former favorite show that she’s physically too embarrassed to remember the name of.
“Psst, hey. Is that a [Redacted] shirt? I love that show.” Katherine poked the tall girl with the dull end of a 2B pencil.
Confused, Raven said “Oh, wow. I haven’t seen another [Redacted] fan at this school. I needed to geek out about that episode where [Redacted] and [Redacted] have that musical scene.”
“The one where they go to the park and sing about how they hate [Redacted]?”
“Oh my god, yes! That one!”
*Raven hummed a cheesy broadway style show tune from the show while she continued to draw.*
Katherine looked down and tried to take a shallow breath in preparation for her next plan of attack.
Her bones crackled as she leaned forward to give her shrill voice a chance of being heard.
“It’s such a good show. We should definitely talk about it at lunch later.”
“Oh yeah, sure. I don’t really talk to anyone at lunch anyway.” Raven choked out an uncomfortable half-chuckle.
At that point, Katherine’s stomach felt like it was about to burst open. An opportunity to talk to the coolest girl in class for 30 whole government mandated minutes? She would make the most of it. Kat HAD to be her friend. She couldn’t take “no” for an answer!
“Oh yeah, we have the same lunch. We should sit by the stairs near the-”
“I hear talking near the back!” The teacher loudly interrupted.
Katherine’s eyes widened with embarrassment and she quickly zipped back to shift her pencil on paper, pretending to be focused on whatever she was drawing.
“I’ll meet you at lunch later.” Raven whispered to her.
Kat’s gentle reminiscing stopped as she realized they reached their destination, a dilapidated strip mall. In as sudden as a second, her brain shifted from being a bright eyed high school freshman back to being a 19 year old failure.
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