Finding it

Miranda shifts in her bed and faces me. I look at her and say "Good morning, sunshine."

She scowls at me and mumbles "I'm hungry."

"Breakfast should be any minute." I say as I sit up and look at a clock in the room. "You have ten minutes to spare though."

"Ugh." She's not a morning person.

"Come on. Get up." I throw the covers off me and move to he bed. "Get up, dude."

"I'm hungry."

"Breakfast in nine minutes now. Get up, get dressed."

"Food?"

"Yes. Food."

She sits up and I watch her get out of bed and makes her way to the restroom. She walks half away half not, as if she's a zombie. She literally is not a morning person. I walk to the restroom also to take a quick shower, then get dressed.

When we are both showered, hair brushed, teeth brushed and also dressed we make our way to breakfast. Instead of wearing an old t-shirt and some pajama shorts I am now dressed in a pair of short green cargo shorts, a white muscle tank top with black and white converse. Miranda wears a pair of blue ripped jeans and a plain white t-shirt with a baseball cap on. I put my hair half up with a clip holding it and my sister's hair is just down. We walk towards the dining court and just as we enter a voice calls out to us.

"Ayye!" Angelo shouts from a table across the room, "Katie! Miranda! Come sit with us!" He gestures to his table that has enough space for us along with a fair amount of others to sit too. It's mostly empty except for Angelo himself, Alex, and an innocent looking girl I don't know. The girl and I make eye contact but we both dismiss it as if it never happened. I get the feeling that she is more of a keep-to-herself kind of person.

We smile and make our way to the table that has food already set for us and sit down. I sit between Alex and the girl while Miranda is on the other side of Alex next to Angelo. I'm not that hungry so I pick at some fruit and just sip some hot chocolate. The girl doesn't say anything but the others do and I feel like I shouldn't leave her out.

I turn to her and smile, "Hey." I say as if we are old friends.

She giggles at my demeanor and responds with a "Hi?"

"I'm Katie. Daughter of Demeter."

"Kia. Daughter of Victoria."

We talk as the others go for more and more food and I feel that maybe I can get her out of her shell. I smile. It's always a good sign when you can get a quiet, shy person to be crazy and themselves around you.

Around the third time the boys of Ceres and Miranda go to get food, Travis slides into the seat next to me. "Hey." He says, poking my side.

"Hey." I say as I swat his hand away. "Kia, meet Travis. Travis, Kia."

Kia's demeanor shifts from kind and open to closed at the sight of him. "She knows who I am." Travis says noticing her attitude. "I pranked one of her friends."

"She was humiliated." She says darkly and dryly.

"Well." Travis says to her from the other side of me. "Pranks seem have that affect on people."

Kia's mouth hangs open at his response and her eyes fill with a fire, despite her innocent face.

I feel as if I was in the crossfire of something I don't want to be in, or to have happening and I decide to break it up. "Trav, please." I say.

"Okay, okay." He says, grabbing my hand, me an affectionate brush of his thumb on the back of my hand.  "I'll see you later Kates."

With that he leaves. Kia looks in an almost concealed disbelief. "Can you believe his nerve."

I give an tight oopsie daisy kind of smile and press my lips together. "Yeah...that's one of my Greek...friends."

"You're friends with him?" She exasperates, "How can you like him?"

"A lot...uhm. That's my boyfriend..."

Her expression is what I would call priceless if I wasn't so stutter-y like a leaf on a branch, dangling in the wind. Or at least that's how I feel as if I'm breathing. I do like him a lot, don't I? Of course I do. Of course I do.

He acts at times as if he's a completely different person. But I do like him. I love him? No. I don't..I...

No. I don't think that I cannot dwell on those emotions that seem...complex. No. Not at the moment.

I turn back to Kia, and now also Miranda who is on my other side. "So do you like anyone, Kia?"

I smile in a playful way as she shoots me a look.

this chapter is stupid.
but ultimately in a way, necessary.
((like my life..))
✨✨
july 27th 2017