Ultramaryne: Short Story 2

Hey, I'm going to a thing and haven't had the time to put text on the new pages, so here is another short story! Enjoy!

Just Being Herself

amnia: OMG

Romania lay sprawled on her fluffy purple comforter, her silky, princess-pink pajamas hanging loosely around her meticulously diet-sculpted body. Before she replied to her best friend's text, she wrapped her dripping naturally-blond hair in a towel. This was her favorite towel, part of a set she had received on her birthday. It featured all five members of her favorite band, One Dimension.

After securing her hair, she typed back to Amnia,

romania: what is it?

amnia: that goth guy was staring at u in the cafe. I think he might like u!

romania: lol no he doesn't

mari: OMGGG!

Oh, no, Romania thought. Her thin fingers tightened anxiously around her phone. Please don't get into this! Mari, Romania's little sister, was also friends with Amnia. This caused quite a bit of tension.

mari: I totally saw you talking to him!!! his name is skintight and she went over and they were talking and he was saying weird emo stuff. it was after you left, amnia.

amnia: lol, really?

Romania sighed. This was unfolding exactly the way she had known it would, with her annoying sister blabbing away and Amnia going along politely. She glanced up at one of the many One Dimension posters spackling her walls. How should I handle this? she implored Big Hair, her favorite band member. He only smiled his adorable laminated smile. If only she could forget about Syntyche and the 'weird emo stuff' he had been saying. I can't think of anything we went over in chemistry today, but I can remember what that loner said word for word. Pathetic. All right, time to clear this up.

romania: ok, for one, his name is Synth he, not Skin Tight.

romania: *Synth he

romania: omg S.Y.N.T.Y.C.H.E. idiot autocorrect.

romania: and two, he doesn't believe in labels like emo or goth. three, I totally don't like him. I was just being nice because he's unpopular, like Sunrise. hey, speaking of her, she is like SO big lately.

Romania attempted to change the subject, then tried to relax as she waited for the results. Normally, she enjoyed drama, but right now her reputation was at stake. Sorry, Sunrise, she apologized mentally.

mari: YA, SKINTIGHT COULD HIDE IN 1 OF HER FAT ROLLS!! haha since when do u like skinny boys, romania?!

amnia: lol lets talk about something else.

Amnia could usually negotiate between the sisters. They had been friends for years.

romania: thx amnia <3

Maybe now we can talk about something less sensitive. Romania glanced at her bedside table where she could see, among countless other objects, her favorite bottle of hot pink nail polish. Should she do her fingernails? Last time she had tried while texting, the polish had spilled on her phone, settling in between the buttons like bubblegum-colored glue. I'll be more careful this time, she decided.

mari: IM NOT LETTING THIS GO!!!

“Ugh!” Romania faceplanted into her blanket. “Come on, Mari.” She shouldn't have let her guard down so soon. Mari was tenacious, and teasing Romania about boys she didn't like was her forte. And Romania had absolutely zero interest in Syntyche. Sure, she might secretly admire his dark sense of fashion, but some of his remarks made her feel vaguely unsettled. Like that thing he said this afternoon... bizarre...

mari: srry sis but theres no way he's into u. Have u seen his hair and colored contacts?!!

romania: pink is everyones color! Knock it off!!!

mari: the only reason he was talking to u was because he wants to know how u do ur makeup so well.

amnia: ok mari I think ur bugging her

mari: hold on im calling u right now

She's calling Amnia? What's Mari thinking? Romania's skin prickled into goosebumps. Is this intuition? Paranoia? Or maybe the air conditioner is set too low...

The door to Romania's room burst open, slamming into the wall, and by association, Big Hair's poster that was taped to it.

“Tell it all! Tell it all!!” Mari cried, holding her phone in front of Romania's face. “Confess!” Mari had a vile grin plastered on her little face. Most of her short red (unnaturally red) hair had escaped her Just Teen Beaver towel. She looked truly evil.

“I. Despise. You.” Romania growled. She contorted her normally elegant features into a feral grimace.

“Mooom!” Mari screamed, “Romania is yelling at me!”

Romania grabbed the nearest object – her ceramic paisley piggy bank – and threw it at Mari with all her strength, but her gracefully slender arm was not especially functional. The bank hit the doorframe and bounced onto the floor, shattering in an explosion of plaster and pennies.

Mari's face glowed like a strobe light. She winked at Romania, then burst into grievous bawling. Romania heard their mom bounding up the stairs. She was surprisingly agile, considering her foot problems from years of wearing high heels.

“What's going on?” she asked, then looked around and took in Romania's scowling face, Mari's sobbing one, and the decimated piggy bank. Everything was immediately clear to her. “Ro-mania! I can't be-lieve you would do this! Mari, honey, look at me. Look! At! Me! Do you feel dizzy?”

Mari nodded and tried to look as spaced-out as possible. “Oh, Lord, Mari! Come downstairs and I'll get you an icepack.” The two left, and a moment later Romania could hear her mother's voice as it tremored through the heating vent. “Gregory, honey, you have to talk to Romania! She's always been selfish about her room, but this...! Oh, Gregory!”

Romania didn't wait to hear her father's familiar bored response. Instead, she kicked a pillow onto the vent and sulked in the ensuing silence. Then her phone dinged.

amnia: hey sorry abt mari. Sometimes she just does stupid stuff without thinking.

amnia: r u in trouble?

romania: no not really.

amnia: now that she's gone tho... what did Synth he say 2 u?

romania: look im really tired lol

amnia: ok ni night

romania: goodnight

Romania lay back on her bed and turned off her lamp. A slightly flickering rectangle of light shone from across the street, illuminating her fifth-favorite poster of Big Hair. Sadly, his dimpled face didn't cheer her up like it normally did. In fact, for a fleeting instant, she realized that her One Dimension shrine was only a collection of ink dots on paper arranged to look like teenage boys. The thought unsettled her and she tried to banish it immediately. Her collection represented her devotion to the band, and someday, they would notice.

She reached for her MP3 player, but her hand gradually slowed down until her fingers were just an inch away from the device. Did she really want to listen to music? Or was she just trying to push her disturbing... maybe even true... thoughts out of her head?

Before she could suppress them, Syntyche's creepy words were sounding in her ears. “So, Romania, at the end of your day, when your consciousness isn't being bombarded with the babbling of your shallow friends or your brainless boyband or your constant daily drama, what is in your head? What do you think about when you're lying in bed waiting to go to sleep? Who are you... when you're just yourself?”

Romania grabbed her earphones and ground them deep into her ears, then turned the volume all the way up.

romania: lol actually lets talk

amnia: what abt?

romania: anything.

Oh, and a poster:

Thank you for reading!

~*