Jellybeans

A pink sweater zinged across the room, colliding silently with the wall, and pathetically falling to the carpeted floor.
The sweater was followed by a pair of acid wash jeans, still folded from the drawer, unsuspecting to the haphazard searching of the brunette teenager.
“Where is it…” She muttered, continued to fling clothing over her head.
A green t-shirt, Daisy-Duke shorts, black jeans, a blue shirt; one right after the other, hitting the opposing wall and falling limply to the floor in a gradual pile that was forming.
Mumbling incoherently for a moment, she sat back on her knees and scratched her head. “It’s here somewhere, it has to be.”
Scooting across the floor, she went to the drawer perpendicular to the one she had just emptied in her blind search.
Beginning to rummage through it, her mind was working quickly. School started in fifteen minutes and she was sitting there in shorts and a polka dot bra. This wasn’t going to work too well.
But being late to the lower classmen’s awards ceremony didn’t worry her. It was finding Kayleigh in the chaos that was yearbook signing.
Graduation was the next day – her own navy robe and cap hung in the living room from the banister, proudly gleaming. A shining monument to represent the fact that she had, in fact, graduated from High School.
“Aha!” The teenager screamed, it echoing through the empty apartment.
Pulling the teal shirt over her head, she examined herself in the mirror atop her dresser. Her hair was curled, her makeup done, her outfit fitting her nicely, but all the while being tasteful.
“Parfait,” She smiled, her heart thumping, her stomach churning in thought. After the fateful realization, that actually occurred less than an hour before her searching began, her heart had not been at peace.
Nor her mind.
Swimming within her brain were a million possibilities – but one truth.
Kayleigh was leaving in a few months to go to Art school.
During that summer, they would be parted as her friend had planned a trip to Europe to look at the art there.
She would be alone, unless she did something about it.
Soon.
Today.
Gingerly touching her fingers to her forehead, the brunette walked across her room to the collage almost engulfing one of the walls in her room. She stared at the pictures, the notes, the pieces of lined paper they had thrown across the room to each other during freshman year in English class. She smiled at the note, her own messy scrawl paired with Kayleigh’s loopy cursive. The conversation went in different directions, holding no pattern, speaking of many things.
Tracing her fingers over the string of Mardi Graz beads they had collected during the French III celebration, she pressed her forehead against the cool, picture covered wall and exhaled slowly.
Her watched beeped from across the room and she startled away from the wall.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her bag and walked out of her room, and the safety of the apartment.
Stepping down onto the sidewalk of the bustling June morning, she shielded her eyes from the sun and let out a mirthful laugh.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

“Wah!” The blonde screamed, ducking as the plastic container sailed over her head. Standing back up, she glanced around warily. The hallways were filled with students pulling papers and notebooks and other various items out of their unused lockers.
Doors slammed, papers crinkled, students yelled at one another.
“Kayleigh!” An Asian-looking girl said from down the hallway. “Sign my yearbook?”
“Uh, s-sure Charlotte.” She smiled a little, opening the navy book to one of the last pages. In large print on the page was “AUTOGRAPHS”, the white paper already mostly covered in different coloured ink, handwriting, messages – memories.
Thinking momentarily about the years she and Charlotte had shared, she scratched down in purple pen, “I’ve had an amazing few years with you, I hope you do great in college, and don’t eat too much macaroni!”
Handing the yearbook back to the girl who was amazingly the same height, the slanted brown eyes scanned the page. She laughed loudly, the memories coming back of making macaroni for a science project at midnight some odd years ago, and giving Kayleigh a hug before sauntering off to find her next friend to sign the pages.
Kayleigh sighed, leaning back against the row of lockers that had already been cleared. She glanced down the hall, then turned her head and stared down the other end.
It was already 8:20 and Violet still hadn’t arrived. Maybe she was skipping? No, she would have texted her.
Her stomach clenched in worry, one of her hands smoothing over the fabric of her grey t-shirt hiding her stomach from view. She glanced down the hallways again, pulling the purple jacket closer to herself. The jacket that smelt of her missing friend, the jacket she had kept since last week since Violet had not asked for it back. It was well over ninety degrees outside, but she pulled it close to her body regardless.
Violet’s smell – that of cigarettes and vanilla – filled the blonde’s senses as she toured the school. Occasionally she was stopped to sign a yearbook or two, take a picture with friends, or give hugs to fellow teary-eyed seniors who claimed they had to stay in touch no matter what happened.
Though she agreed to all this, her mind lingered. Where was the infamous brunette?
Sure, today would be boring as hell, but it was no reason for her to ignore her.
Kayleigh’s mind began to process, quickly, what the odds were that her friend was in trouble.
“Kay!”
The blonde whipped around to face two boys in lettermen jackets. One she knew from her English class, and the other was Jared.
Her lips immediately pulled into an unsure smile. “Hey.” She returned.
“Yearbook?” He asked, handing her the book. She nodded, pulling the purple pen from behind her ear and poising it upon the white paper.
“You know, I’m really disappointed we never really… kept going.” Jared said uneasily.
“O-oh? Yeah…” She couldn’t think of much to say.
“Have an amazing summer, hope to see you again sometime! Good luck in college. –Kay” She wrote on the paper with a shaky hand.
“We should meet up this summer, ya know? I still think we have some potential, only if you want and everything, but sti-” He babbled on, Kayleigh’s breathing increasing slightly.
“What should I do, what should I do, what should I do?!” Her mind screamed at her. The blonde didn’t want to hurt his feelings, of course not, he was such a nice guy, and he put up with her.
“Uh, uhm… M-maybe. I’m kinda busy, I-I’m going t-to…” Her words weren’t forming right.
“Kayleigh!” The girl startled suddenly. Hazel eyes looked up to the familiar face of her brunette friend, but something was off.
Violet had a bizarre expression on her face, something more contemplative than usual.
“Vi!” She squeaked as the tanner girl began to drag her off by the arm. Jared stood there looking slightly dumbfounded, but for some reason, Kayleigh could breathe. She didn’t care.
“Violet, w-where were you? You’re… like 45 minutes late.” The blonde scolded.
“I had an epiphany.” Violet said, turning around suddenly and grasping the blonde by her shoulders. The hazel eyes grew in surprise.
“Wh-what?”
“An epiphany! You know, like… Eureka! I’ve got it!”
“Erm… Eureka means ‘I’ve found it’.”
“Close enough!” Her blue eyes sparkled slightly.
“Violet… What exactly did you… discover?” The blonde asked tentatively. Her pulse had increased ever so slightly, both fear and hope rising in her system, though her mind told her to relax, that it had nothing to do with her, that she shouldn’t take this the wrong way.
The brunette paused, dropping her head, her hands still holding onto Kayleigh’s arms. They stood, unnoticed in the busy hallway as students and teachers went about their business.
“Kayleigh. I…” Her head raised, their eyes connecting for a moment as she paused, “I’m in love… with you…” She said, quieter than before, less enthusiastic – more earnestly.
The blonde stopped breathing, her cheeks flushing. Her mind going a million miles per hour, before stopping.
“P-please… D-don’t make fun o-of me.” The blonde said, her hazel eyes clouding over slightly, willing herself not to cry.
The brunette leaned her forehead against the shorter girl’s shoulder, her grasp tightening slightly. Violet let out a shaky breath, “I-I’m not. I’m not making fun of you.”
She brought her head up, staring, the blue meeting hazel in a bizarre, connective way. “I’m scared, Kay. I… I didn’t mean to hurt you. God knows I didn’t. I… I don’t deserve you, you’re… God, you’re so fucking amazing.” The brunette cracked a grin, her eyes swimming with tears.
“You’re the coolest person I’ve ever met, the nicest. The smartest. The most beautiful, you are the most beautiful person… In the whole fucking world.” Violet said.
Kayleigh couldn’t keep the tears from trailing down her face; she hiccupped pathetically, bringing her balled hands up to rub her eyes.
“I-I… I tried… I tried to get over you. I just c-couldn’t.” The blonde choked out. “I l-love yo-” The blonde was cut off by Violet’s lips pressing to hers in a very gentle, very sincere kiss.
The hallways froze; the people in them finally looking past their yearbooks and fake smiles and cameras to notice the occurrence in front of them.
But the two girls, the two that finally had gotten exactly what they deserved, did not notice the people around them. The shocked faces, the confused, the hate, the admiration. Neither cared, because right then, right there…
Fate had finally taken a turn for the better.