“Bored,” Su-Z said to no one in particular as she laid on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “Boorred. Booorrred. Boooorr -”
“If you’re going to do that, Su-Z, do you think you can maybe do it somewhere else?” Kiwi Lollipop asked her friend from a nearby chair as she reluctantly looked up from the book she was reading.
“Sorry, Kiwi,” The younger PostCrush girl apologized. “It’s just…I’m so bored right now.”
“I gathered,” Kiwi replied listlessly.
“The problem is that it’s too quiet around here with Adagio, Aria, and Sonata gone,” Su-Z expounded. “I mean, it’s crazy how, well…less crazy things have been since they left to go visit Dolly. Without them around, things have just been so dull and mundane and…and…”
“Boring?” Kiwi finished her friend’s thought.
“Exactly!” Su-Z replied.
Without even being fully conscious of it, Kiwi gave a small eyeroll in response to Su-Z’s empathic remark. Not because she believed the girl to be wrong about things being less crazy than usual with the Dazzlings gone – it was undeniably true - but because she simply couldn’t believe that her friend found the calm to be boring.
In the three days since the Dazzlings had left to pay Dolly a visit so they could meet her new boyfriend, the elder of the two PostCrush girls had come to enjoy the peace and quiet that had come as a result of their departure. She loved the three siren sisters – platonically - and was forever grateful to them for getting her and Su-Z out of that van down by the river, but she couldn’t deny that living with them could be a tad trying at times. Chaos had a habit of finding some or all of them just about every other day, and through the magic of transitive properties this meant that it often found her as well. So for her to have a few days of serenity was something she considered a small blessing, and she just found it incredibly difficult to understand how Su-Z could find such tranquility to be so humdrum.
“So find something to do if you’re so bored,” She said to the girl. “Why don’t you call your sister and see if she wants to go on another reconciliation date?”
“Nah, I probably shouldn’t,” Su-Z answered. “Eclipse and I may have made up, but we’ve decided it’d be best to rebuild our relationship slowly. If we take things too quickly we’d probably just end up having another fallout, you know?”
“Okay, well, maybe try doing something constructive,” Kiwi then said. “Try reading a book or working on a jigsaw puzzle. Or maybe try your hand at writing that ‘Help Wanted’ ad Adagio was talking about creating.”
“Eh, all those things would probably just increase my boredom,” Su-Z said as she sat up on the couch. “I think I’ll just see if there’s anything good on TV.”
“Whatever works for you,” Kiwi replied as she went back to reading her book.
As Su-Z reached for the remote sitting on the nearby coffee table, she couldn’t help but wonder why it was Kiwi had started reading her book once more knowing full well that she was about to turn the TV on. The younger PostCrush girl had expected her friend would’ve returned to her book after their conversation, but she’d also expected the girl to get up from her seat and go into another room to avoid any further distracting noise. Though ultimately, she gave this query little thought, as eventually she came to the conclusion that TV noise was something that Kiwi would simply be able to tune out.
Once she had the remote within her hand, Su-Z promptly used it to turn the TV on. And within the blink of an eye, the device’s screen lit up and showed a scene of a blind man driving a Ferrari.
“Whoo-ah!” The blind man said as he quickly sped up, much to the dismay of the young man in the passenger’s seat.
“Seen it,” She uttered to herself, though at a low enough volume so as to not disturb Kiwi again, as she changed the channel.
“Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark's in the water. Our shark,” A shark hunter on the new channel said.
“Seen it,” Su-Z repeated right before changing the channel yet again.
“Well, let's see, that's natives 8, oil workers 0. Anyone else wanna play with Cupcake?” A man on the newer channel said to a group of bar patrons.
“Seen it…unfortunately,” Su-Z said as she changed the channel for a third time.
The fourth channel Su-Z turned to featured a scene with a couple of girls – one bespectacled and the other a redhead – sitting in a semi-crowded coffee shop as a young man approached their table.
“Heads up,” The glasses-clad girl whispered to her friend.
“Hey,” The young man shyly greeted them. “My band’s playing here on Friday night, and, uh…well it’s gonna be a buncha cool bands playin’ and stuff. You don’t have to pay if you show them this flyer at the door.”
The young man then handed each of the girls a flyer, which they both studied for a few seconds.
“Which band is yours?” The girl with the glasses eventually asked, sounding only semi-interested.
“It’s…Alien Autopsy,” The young man replied.
“Oh. Bitchin’,” The glasses-clad girl simply replied, now sounding even less interested than she had a moment ago.
As the scene on the TV played out, Su-Z got the distinct impression that she’d seen it somewhere before. However, despite her best initial efforts, she found herself unable to place where it was she’d recognized it from. Not surprisingly, this inability to properly recall where she’d seen the scene before began to gnaw at the girl’s psyche like a beaver gnawing on a piece of wood, and within a short amount of time that gnawing feeling became a rather large nuisance. One so big and annoying that she simply had to figure out the answer to her psychical query.
And so, with a level of determination she hadn’t felt since deciding that PostCrush would utterly dominate Of Girls and Rabbits on the Billboard charts, Su-Z put the remote in her hand down and watched intently as the movie on the TV continued to play out.
“Yeah, well…maybe I’ll see you there,” The young man said to the two girls right before walking away.
“Yeah, thanks,” The redhead spoke up before he was out of earshot.
“God, what a dork,” The girl with the glasses said to her friend once the young man was gone.
“You're just jealous,” The redhead replied.
“Trust me, at this point I'm past the fact that every single guy likes you better than me,” The glasses-clad girl confessed.
As soon as the girl with the glasses finished her confession, Su-Z gained a strong, almost certain feeling that she knew where it was she’d seen this scene before. And when she did, she immediately dawned a large, almost goofy-looking smile that nearly stretched from ear-to-ear.
“Kiwi! Kiwi!” The girl frantically shouted at her friend through her overly amused facial expression.
“You don’t have to yell, Su-Z. I’m sitting right here,” Kiwi replied as she put her book down.
“Look! Look!” Su-Z jovially instructed her bandmate as she vigorously pointed at the TV.
Kiwi felt a mixture of confusion and mild annoyance at Su-Z’s overly energetic demand that she look at the TV. However, despite these feelings she did as her friend requested and turned her attention over towards the television set.
“Oh, face it, you just hate every single guy on the face of the earth,” The redhead said.
“That's not true!” The glasses-clad girl strongly replied. “I just hate all these extroverted, obnoxious, pseudo-bohemian losers!”
Within seconds of watching the movie play out on the TV, Kiwi’s confusion and mild annoyance began to dissipate.
“No way,” The older PostCrush girl uttered in mild disbelief as the memory of where she’d seen this movie before came flooding back to the forefront of her mind like a mighty tsunami.
“This is that movie, isn’t it?!” Su-Z rhetorically asked. “The one we watched together the night we met, right?!”
“Yeah, I think it is,” Kiwi replied hypnotically as she continued to watch the television, finding herself unable to turn away from it.
Any and all disbelief that Kiwi continued to hold regarding what it was she was watching immediately disappeared with Su-Z’s rhetorical question. The movie currently playing on their TV on Dazzling Farms was the exact same one that had played on the TV in Su-Z’s apartment the night she’d met her future best friend.
“Come on!” Su-Z excitedly said as she tapped the seat next to her. “Come on over here and let’s watch it again!”
Without even thinking about it, Kiwi lifted herself up out of her chair and sauntered over to the spot on the couch her best friend had tapped, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on the TV. Within a couple of seconds, she was seated next to Su-Z and watching a movie whose name she didn’t know with her, just like on that fateful night so many years ago that had ended up changing her life forever.
“Damn it,” Kiwi dejectedly said to herself as she walked down the lamp-lite streets of Baltimare. “I really thought I had a shot at that one.”
The 18-year-old girl looked down at the newspaper clipping in her hand and mentally crossed off yet another job listing printed on it; the sixth one of the day.
It had been a little over two months since Kiwi had abruptly left the small town she’d grown-up in and moved to the big city of Baltimare, and over the course of those approximately two months she’d failed to find a job. She’d managed to easily find an affordable - albeit cramped – apartment located above a shabby bakery on her first day in the city, but when it had come to finding a place of employment she hadn’t been quite as fortunate. Every office, store, and restaurant that she’d interviewed at had turned her away almost immediately, usually citing her lack of previous work experience as the reason for doing so. It was an understandable enough reason, she knew, but one that was causing her no small amount of frustration for multiple reasons.
When Kiwi had left home, she hadn’t had much in the way of savings. She’d had enough money to afford a bus ticket to Baltimare as well as rent and food for just over three months, but that was pretty much it. There wasn’t much left for incidental expenses, and as fate would have it she’d had no small amount of those since arriving in the city. Little things like taxi rides and restocking on personal hygiene products had slowly but surely eaten away at her meager nest egg, and she now found herself on the verge of running out of money before even making it to her third rent payment.
The new city-girl knew all-too-well what would most likely happen if she failed to present her landlady with her next rent payment on time: she’d get evicted right on the spot. From her very first meeting with the woman, Kiwi got the distinct impression that she wasn’t much of a patient or merciful woman, and that she’d have no reservations about kicking her out of her apartment if she was even one day late with her rent.
Another unfortunate fact that Kiwi knew all-too-well was what would happen if she got evicted from her apartment: she’d have to move back to her hometown and live with her father once more. This was what frustrated her most of all. After learning that her father had lied to her for years regarding her mother’s death she never wanted to so much as ever see the man again, let alone move back in with him. The very idea of doing so was enough to make her blood boil.
“Damn it!” She reiterated, though now much more indignantly, as the realization of her perilous financial situation became ever clearer to her.
Kiwi’s sudden outburst garnered her the attention of a few passers-by, but she paid them no mind. She was too focused inward to notice any such things. Just about every ounce of her attention was currently being fixated on finding a way to land a job so she could solve her money problems, and as such she failed to notice her landlady step out of her shop as she passed by its entrance.
“Hey, Kumquat!” The landlady shouted at her from the doorway.
Upon hearing the booming, contralto voice of her landlady, Kiwi immediately stopped and took a quick, deep breath before turning around to face her.
“It’s Kiwi, Ms. Potpie,” The girl annoyedly corrected her. “Just like it says on the renter’s agreement I signed when I moved in.”
“Whatever,” Ms. Potpie insipidly replied. “I need to tell you that you can’t go into your apartment right now. Your neighbor across the hall found some cockroaches outside your door so I had to have someone come and spray for them.”
“WHAT?!” Kiwi loudly replied, once again gaining her some looks from passers-by.
“Yeah, and the exterminator said you can’t go in the apartment for three days,” Ms. Potpie then told the girl, seemingly unperturbed by her boisterous cry.
As much as Kiwi wanted to shout ‘what’ again, she found herself unable to do so. For a few seconds the girl was unable to utter so much as an ‘um’ as her mind reeled with the news that her apartment – aka the only place she could spend the night – was sealed off due to an apparent infestation of cockroaches.
“But…but…” She started to say once she was capable of speaking again. “I-If I can’t get into my apartment then where am I supposed to sleep tonight?”
“Just stay with a friend or at a hotel or something,” Ms. Potpie answered uncaringly.
For the second time within the span of a minute, Kiwi found herself speechless. This time though due to a growing feeling of rage within the very core of her being. Ms. Potpie knew that she was new to Baltimare and that she wasn’t exactly swimming in cash, so for the woman to suggest that she could stay with a non-existent friend or that she could afford a hotel was nothing short of infuriating to her. She opened her mouth to very contentiously remind her of these facts, but thankfully before she could utter her first heated word a pressing query entered her mind that allowed a somewhat cooler head to prevail.
“Am I going to be getting some of my rent money for this month back because of this?” She asked her landlady through gritted teeth.
“You kidding? Not a chance,” Ms. Potpie answered just before abruptly walking back into her store.
In a way, Kiwi was grateful that Ms. Potpie had left when she did, because if she hadn’t she was sure that she would’ve cursed the woman out to the point of losing her apartment. She hadn’t expected a favorable response to her rent-refund question, but the contentious way in which her landlady had answered her once more made her blood begin to boil. And this time, she wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to hold her emotions back had their conversation continued.
“Hey, new girl! Pick up the pace!” She heard Ms. Potpie shout at someone once she was fully back inside the store.
As Kiwi stood near-frozen on the sidewalk in front of Ms. Potpie’s shop, she began to think about how much she hated the fact that such an astringent and callous woman was her landlady. About how she hated the fact that she had to live in such a small, inelegant, and apparently cockroach-infested apartment. About how she hated the fact that she couldn’t find a job and was on the brink of complete financial collapse. About how she hated that her father had lied to her about her mother’s death for so many years.
But perhaps most of all, she thought about how she hated that all of her current woes were of her own making.
As much as Kiwi wanted to place the blame for everything that she was going through right now on Ms. Potpie or her father or just about anyone else, she knew that it was her and her alone who was ultimately culpable. Sure, there were factors outside of her control that had contributed to her recent series of distresses, but all of those factors were merely by-products of one core, very crucial action on her part: she’d left home carelessly. When she’d made the decision to move to Baltimare she’d done so impulsively and without considering the potential ramifications of her decision, including the possibility that she’d run out of money. She’d allowed her anger towards her father to cloud her better-thinking, and though the argument could be made that her father bared some of the responsibility for her leaving home, she knew that, when all was said and done, coming to Baltimare and placing herself in financial peril was entirely on her.
“Fuck,” The girl uttered under her breath in both frustration and lament.
Despite knowing that she couldn’t enter her apartment, Kiwi turned around and headed for the stairs that led up to the residences above the bakery. Within no time she reached the top and peered over towards her unit and, not surprisingly, there was a notice on her door about the extermination that had taken place on the other side of it. She then peered over towards the door of her neighbor across the hall whom Ms. Potpie had said was the one who’d told her about the cockroaches, and as she looked at that door she began to wonder why it was that only her apartment had needed spraying and not the whole building.
“Because the landlady’s so damn cheap,” She answered her own question aloud before crossing the hallway and heading towards the stairs that led up to the roof.
If there was one thing that Kiwi liked about where she lived, it was that the building’s roof offered a good view of downtown Baltimare. Not a great view, but one that allowed her to see some of the city’s nicer and newer structures, including the tallest building in the city; a high-rise complex that was home to some of Baltimare’s wealthiest and most famous citizens. On especially hard days, Kiwi liked to saunter up to the roof of the building and stare out at the contemporary superstructure as she imagined what it looked like on the inside of the high-rise’s penthouse. It was a simple activity that helped provide her with an escape from the harshness of her reality, if only for a few moments. And given how harsh her reality had been thus far today, she felt an almost medical need to escape from it for a while.
The journey from Kiwi’s apartment floor to the roof was a fairly short one – only about twelve seconds at normal walking pace – but today it felt even shorter than usual to the girl. Perhaps it was simply because she was walking faster than usual and didn’t realize it or because she just zoned out a bit during her jaunt, but either way she found herself up on the roof before she knew it.
“Yeesh. More cans,” She said in mild disgust as she walked across the roof and looked at all of the discarded cans of air freshener scattered throughout it. “Who keeps leaving these things up here?”
For the most part the roof was a fairly clean place, save for the occasional half dozen or so discarded aerosol cans atop it. It wasn’t great by any means, but it was most certainly cleaner than her apartment – despite her numerous attempts to spruce up her living space – and was another reason she liked it so much. The air freshener cans that usually adorned it were really the only thing that bothered her about the roof, but they were a minor annoyance at worst. Plus, the cans were typically only within her field of vision for a short time anyhow since she always sat on the ledge to look out across the city.
And if anything, it was more the mystery of where the cans kept coming from that bothered her than the actual fact that the cans were littered across the roof.
After carefully making her way across the top of her apartment building, Kiwi stepped up onto the ledge and took her usual spot atop it to stare out at the city and the tallest building within it. Once seated, she let her legs sway for a bit as they dangled off the edge before bringing them to a more still position. It was a simple, almost pointless gesture, she knew, but for some reason it felt good to allow her legs to waver for a bit over the ledge, so she always did it right after sitting down at her look-out spot.
After her legs were steady, Kiwi stared out at the high-rise in the distance and once again began to imagine what it was like inside the penthouse at the top of it. She imagined it being extremely spacious and elegant, with expensive furniture and décor spread throughout. A Marcia L-shape sectional couch in front of a 65” OLED TV in the living room, a Tobias Tall bed complete with canopy in the bedroom, and grassy dune and sandbar impression paintings decorating the walls in every room; these were but a few of the things she envisioned existing within the luxurious dwelling - a far contrast from the bare-basic amenities that occupied her small apartment. She then imagined herself walking through the penthouse and over towards one of its glass walls to peer out across the city, and what she imagined the view looking like from there nearly took her breath away.
“The lights,” She said softly to herself as she pictured the lights of the city shining up at her - instead of down on her like they were right now.
The more Kiwi thought about the view of Baltimare from the penthouse the more she began to slip into the world she was quickly creating within her mind. She started to imagine that the penthouse was hers and that she was hosting a party within it, with every party guest complementing her on her gorgeous home as she walked past them.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Her imaginary self said as she gracefully sauntered through the living room and out onto the balcony.
On the balcony, a lone figure awaited her. She couldn’t perfectly form the image of this figure within her mind, but she knew that whoever they were they were someone who greatly admired and adored her. Loved her even. And as she approached them, the lights of the city began to shine ever brighter on them and a warm, sensual feeling began to take hold of her. The figure reached out their hand towards her and, instinctively, Kiwi reached out her hand to take theirs. With every inch that her hand got closer to the figure’s the more the warm and sensual feeling enveloped her, eliciting a level of euphoria that she was sure she’d never felt before.
Back in reality, Kiwi could feel her heart begin to beat quicker and quicker within her chest as her fantasy continued to play out. Without even really realizing it, her hand reached out into the emptiness in front of it as her imaginary self reached out to the mysterious figure.
“Mon amour,” She softly said aloud as the Kiwi within her mind just about connected with her enigmatic person.
“Don’t take too long!” Ms. Potpie’s voice suddenly echoed up from the street, immediately breaking Kiwi out of her beautiful fantasy world.
“Wha – ?” The girl said as she abruptly snapped back to reality.
Instinctively, Kiwi retracted her hand once her imaginary scenario had been broken. And once she’d regained her full senses she looked down to where she’d heard Ms. Potpie yelling from and saw the woman standing just outside her shop. It was unclear to her who it was that she’d just yelled at, but it didn’t really matter. All that really mattered was that her hollering had broken her out of her beautiful fantasy and placed her squarely back within her ugly reality.
Perhaps it was because of how deeply she’d gone into her imaginary world, but now that she was back in the real-world Kiwi was very keenly aware of her current situation; she was sitting on a rooftop of a battered building, alone, with the city’s light shining down on her instead of up at her.
“Damn it,” She said as she clenched her right hand into a fist and lightly slammed it down onto the ledge. “Damn it!”
Not surprisingly, Kiwi’s hand hurt for a few seconds after bringing it down onto the ledge, but the girl was too upset to really notice the pain. She was upset over the fact that Ms. Potpie’s shouting had pulled her out of her dazzling fantasy. She was upset that she’d allowed herself to dive so deep into her imaginary world. But most of all, she was upset that her fantasy had been just that: a fantasy. She looked back up at the high-rise off in the distance, but this time the sight of it only filled her with enmity. Because of her agitated state it now appeared to her that the high-rise was mocking her, telling her that it’s penthouse was now and would forever be out of her reach. That the best she’d ever get was a spot on a ledge to stare up at it and imagine what would never be.
Eventually, this feeling of enmity became too much for Kiwi to ignore. And within the blink of an eye, she got up from her seated position and stood atop the ledge in a very bellicose manner.
“RAAAAHHHH!” She yelled out in an almost primal fashion at the building that was mocking her.
Despite her high level of hostility at the moment, Kiwi was fully aware of how ridiculous it was for her to be screaming at a building – or for her to believe that said building was mocking her. But even still, she had to admit that it felt good to just yell out all of her resentments and frustrations, however ridiculous they might have been. And much to her surprise, it actually felt pretty cathartic to do so. She knew that nothing would really change as a result of her venting, but at the very least she didn’t feel quite as angry anymore.
“Don’t do it!” A female voice precipitously called out from behind her just as she finished yelling.
Instinctively, Kiwi turned around to see who it was that had called out to her, and when she did she saw a young woman about her age running towards her.
“Don’t do it!” The young woman reiterated as she continued to swiftly advance on her.
Without even thinking about it, Kiwi took a step backwards to try and put a little distance between herself and the shouting stranger quickly advancing on her.
“Wah!” The girl let out as the foot that she’d moved failed to make contact with a solid surface and she began to flail about in an attempt to maintain her balance atop the ledge.
Kiwi’s attempts to maintain her equilibrium rapidly proved to be futile, as before she knew it she found herself falling backwards and over the edge of the roof.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl for Kiwi as she tumbled off the gable. Countless thoughts rushed to the forefront of her mind as it was flooded with adrenaline, but oddly enough she found herself able to make out each and every one of those thought.
How could she have been so stupid as to step off the roof? Who was the girl that had been running towards her? Why had that girl been running towards her in the first place? Would her father ever learn of what was about to happen to her? Questions like these were the kinds of things Kiwi asked herself as the rooftop slowly disappeared from her view, but sadly she found that she didn’t have answers to any of them. Though this lack of antiphons did bother her much, as she figured that in another few seconds it wouldn’t matter.
Just as the top of the roof exited her field of view, Kiwi closed her eyes and tried to calm herself as best as possible. She tried to think about the things that might be awaiting her in the next life, and whether or not her mother would be amongst them. She’d never been entirely convinced that there was such a thing as the afterlife, but if there was she’d always hoped that her mother would be there waiting for her.
The thought of seeing the mother she’d never known succeeded in calming Kiwi’s mind – at least as much as it could be calmed given the situation – but much like when she’d felt beatific whilst within her fantasy world she soon found herself suddenly ripped away from her blissful state.
“Gotcha!” The mystery girl shouted just as she grabbed ahold of her left arm, causing her to abruptly cease her descent.
As soon as she felt herself stop mid-air, Kiwi opened her eyes and looked up at the girl holding onto her arm for dear life.
“Listen…I…” The girl tried to say as she struggled to maintain her grip on her. “I don’t know…what you’re going through, but…this isn’t the answer.”
“…What?” Kiwi asked the girl confusedly.
“Trust me, I know…that things can seem pretty bad sometimes,” The girl then said. “But you…can’t just throw your life away because…things seem bad right now.”
The more the girl talked, the more befuddled Kiwi became. However, it wasn’t long before the metaphorical lightbulb over her head lit up and her befuddlement was replaced with dismayed understanding.
“Wait, did you think that I was going to jump off the roof?!” She crossly asked.
“Well, yeah,” The girl answered in a very pell-mell manner. “You were…weren’t you?”
“No, I wasn’t!” Kiwi replied indignantly. “I was just looking out over the city before you came charging at me and I slipped!”
“…Oh,” The girl then said embarrassedly. “Um, s-sorry. My bad.”
Despite the fact that she was currently hanging from the side of a building by one arm, Kiwi couldn’t help but give herself a facepalm with her free hand.
“Can you please just pull me up already?!” She asked as she removed her hand from her face.
“Right, right,” The girl hastily said right before she started to hoist Kiwi back up to the rooftop.
As she was lifted back up, Kiwi grabbed hold of the ledge with her free hand and did her best to get some form of footing along the side of the building. Unfortunately though, there wasn’t really much of anything for her to securely plant her feet against as she climbed back up. But thankfully it didn’t seem to matter. Between the mystery girl hoisting and her own efforts she soon found herself safely seated back atop the roof.
For a few seconds, neither girl said anything as they both sat atop the roof and tried to catch their breath after having overly exerted themselves. But as soon as Kiwi managed to recuperate enough she decided to break the silence.
“Thank…you,” She lauded the girl who’d just help save her life – after inadvertently putting it in danger in the first place.
“Don’t…mention it,” The girl said back, right before extending a hand out to her. “I’m…Supernova Zap, by the way.”
“Kiwi Lollipop,” Kiwi introduced herself as she shook the girl’s hand.
“So, you like to come up here to look out at the city too, huh?” Supernova then said as she stood up.
Kiwi likewise stood up, but she didn’t immediately reply to Supernova’s question right away. Even though the girl had pulled her to safety from the side of the roof she still had a few questions about her and who she was. Questions such as whether she was someone who lived in the building as well, and if she did if she was the neighbor across the hall who’d reported the cockroaches near her apartment to Ms. Potpie.
“Yeah, I like to come up here after having a particularly bad day,” She said once she was fully upright. “Or if I grow tired of being inside my cramped apartment. Is that why you come up here too?”
“Oh, no. I just come up here to take my smoke break,” Supernova answered. “I work in the bakery downstairs.”
Just then, Supernova dawned a jolted look that gave Kiwi the distinct impression that the girl had just remembered something important.
“That actually reminds me,” Supernova then said right before she bent down, picked up a nearby air freshener can, and started to spray herself with its contents.
Naturally, some of the vapor from Supernova’s can wandered on over to where Kiwi was standing, and as soon as that vapor whiffed its way into the girl’s nostrils she instantaneously recoiled in disgust.
“Oh my gosh!” She uttered as she pinched her nose shut. “Is that…cigarette smoke?”
“Uh-huh,” Supernova verified as she continued to spray herself. “But don’t worry, it’s not real cigarette smoke. It’s just an artificial scent. I got these so that I can smell like cigarettes after I take my smoke break. Afterall, you can’t take a smoke break unless you smoke – or at least make it seem like you smoke.”
Despite Kiwi having closed off her nostrils she could still feel some of the artificial cigarette smoke getting inside, so in an effort to minimize the amount of foul odor entering her proboscis she took a few steps back from Supernova. Though not too many steps back as to find herself unable to continue conversing with the girl.
“Where’d you even get something like that?” She inquired as she ceased pinching her nose.
“The internet,” Supernova simply replied, as though such a vague answer were a wholly satisfying one.
A few seconds later, Supernova ceased spraying herself with the nauseating aroma and threw the can back down onto the roof, much to Kiwi’s annoyance. She didn’t care for the girl so carelessly littering the otherwise clean rooftop, but she decided it best to not make a big thing of it and remained silent on the matter.
“So, are you the new girl Ms. Potpie was yelling at earlier?” Kiwi asked.
“Yep. I sure am,” Supernova replied rather listlessly as she turned toward the ledge and started to lean on it. “Though I’m not sure why she still calls me that after I’ve been working here for, like, six months or so now.”
“Probably because she can’t be bothered to remember your name,” Kiwi said as she moved closer to Supernova and joined her in leaning on the ledge, recalling how Ms. Potpie had called her Kumquat earlier as she did so.
“Yeah, probably,” Supernova agreed. “Though honestly, it’s not the nickname itself that bothers me so much. It’s the fact that she can’t seem to make an effort to remember my name that bugs me.”
“You don’t mind being called ‘new girl’?” Kiwi asked bewilderedly.
“Nah. Not really,” Supernova answered, now sounding somewhat somber. “In a way I actually like having a nickname, it just bothers me that the reason I have one is because someone can’t even try and remember my actual name. It makes me feel like…never mind.”
“It’s okay, you can keep going,” Kiwi replied sympathetically.
“No, no. It’s fine,” Supernova countered. “Just…forget I ever said anything about all that.”
An uncomfortable silence fell across the rooftop as a sudden awkwardness crept its way between the two girls. It was clear to Kiwi that Supernova had started down a subject matter that was very personal and delicate to her, but that she wasn’t comfortable opening up about fully. However, she got the distinct impression that Supernova did want to open up to her but simply didn’t feel that she could yet – since they’d only just met. She thought of something – anything - she could possibly do to help Supernova feel comfortable with being more vulnerable with her, and after a few seconds she came to the conclusion that the best way to get the girl to open up to her was for her to open up first.
“Hey. You see that building over there?” She asked Supernova as she pointed off towards the high-rise in the distance.
“Yeah?” Supernova half-asked, half-said.
“That’s what I come up here to look at when I’m feeling down,” Kiwi explained. “I like to think about what it must be like inside there. Especially the penthouse at the top.”
“Huh,” Supernova uttered in intrigue as she focused on the high-rise’s penthouse.
“I just…I like to imagine that someday I could have a life like that,” Kiwi confessed. “A life of comfort and security. A life where I wouldn’t have to deal with people like Ms. Potpie. A life where I wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not I’m going to be able to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a given day. A life where I wouldn’t have to worry about losing my apartment and having to move back in with my dad.”
“You…have those kinds of worries right now?” Supernova asked concernedly.
“Yeah, I do,” Kiwi reluctantly admitted. “I’m at the end of my rope moneywise, and if I don’t find a job or some other way to make money soon I’m not going to be able to continue living in this city much longer. And if that happens then I’ll have no choice but to move back home with my dad, and after what happened between us that’s the absolute last thing that I want.”
Another silence fell over the rooftop as Kiwi started to feel a couple of tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
When the girl had made the decision to open up and share her hardships with Supernova, she hadn’t expected to experience such a strong emotional response from doing so. Afterall, it wasn’t as if any of the information she’d just shared was news to her. She’d been fully aware of her various woes for some time now. But for some reason, expressing those woes aloud – and in front of another person – appeared to give them more substance and verisimilitude. All of a sudden, they felt more real, and because of that she could feel herself starting to become more emotional than she’d been expecting.
As feelings of embarrassment over her newly emotional state began to take hold, Kiwi turned her head to the side and tried to discreetly brush the tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall down her face. However, her efforts proved to be in vain as a single teardrop managed to escape the corner of her eye before she fully turned her head.
A teardrop that didn’t go unnoticed by Supernova.
“I’m sorry to hear all that,” The girl compassionately told Kiwi. “I’m sorry to hear that you’re struggling so much right now. And I’m sorry to hear that you and your dad aren’t getting along too.”
To say that she and her dad weren’t ‘getting along’ felt like a gross understatement to Kiwi, but the girl chose not to express this feeling aloud. She wasn’t ready to fully open that can of worms to another person just yet – or even to herself.
Feeling both embarrassed and that she was being rude for not looking at the person talking to her, Kiwi quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and turned back around to face Supernova.
“I know firsthand how difficult things can get between family members sometimes,” Supernova continued. “My sister and I haven’t been getting along very well these days either. I mean, we haven’t been all that close for a while now, but lately it seems like we’re farther apart than ever.”
Just then, Supernova dawned a very stern and flustered expression, causing her to turn her attention away from Kiwi and out towards the city.
“I just…I don’t get what her deal is,” The girl went on, now sounding undeniably irate. “She doesn’t seem to want to have anything to do with me anymore! And it really pisses me off, you know, ‘cause she won’t even tell me why it is she’s acting so cold and distant towards me!”
Supernova’s tirade was brought to a small break as the girl found herself in need of a few calming breaths, during which time Kiwi began to have mixed feelings about her plan to have the girl open up to her. On the one hand, she was glad that Supernova was now comfortable enough around her to share such intimate information and feelings with her. But on the other hand, she wasn’t too sure that she hadn’t just inadvertently helped Supernova also open up a Pandora’s box of sorts.
“I mean, what, am I not good enough for her anymore or something?!” Supernova continued to vent. “Does she suddenly think that she’s better than me?! Just because she’s a student at some fancy business school and I’m…I’m…”
Supernova then lowered her head sullenly and mumbled something under her breath that was too muffled by the various sounds of the city for Kiwi to hear. Though Kiwi was certain that even if the two of them had been somewhere quieter she still wouldn’t have been able to make out whatever it was the other girl had just said.
“Sorry, what was that?” Kiwi inquired.
“I’m an art school dropout,” Supernova reiterated, though still not at a loud enough volume to be heard.
“I still can’t hear you,” Kiwi told the other girl as she leaned in a bit closer to her.
“I’m an art school dropout!” Supernova then practically hollered under protest, causing Kiwi to flinch away from her.
Much like Kiwi only a few moments ago, Supernova soon felt tears begin to well up in the corners of her eye. Though unlike Kiwi, she didn’t shy away from her companion when she felt those tears coming on. She just continued to look out over the city as the small drops of wetness rolled down her cheeks, all the while maintaining her stern and flustered expression.
“I had to drop out of art school a few months ago,” She continued. “It was mostly because I couldn’t afford it anymore, but even if that hadn’t been the case I doubt I would’ve lasted much longer anyhow. I…I wasn’t doing very well, and I don’t think I would’ve gotten any better with time.”
The more Supernova talked, the more her cheeks started to look like they had two mighty rivers streaming down them.
“I felt like such a loser when I left art school. And I’ve felt that way ever since,” The girl confessed. “And sometimes I think that’s the reason why my sister has been distancing herself from me so much lately, and why Ms. Potpie can’t remember my name; because they both see me as nothing but a big loser who’ll never amount to anything more than an art school dropout.”
Without warning, Supernova turned to face Kiwi with a distressed smile stretching across her face – the sight of which pained Kiwi all the way down to her core.
“And you know something? Maybe they’re right,” Supernova said through her sad smile. “Maybe I am just a big loser who’ll never make anything of herself. Maybe I’ll always just be Supernova Zap, art school dropout.”
The pain Kiwi had felt when she’d seen Supernova’s somberly tender smile multiplied tenfold as soon as she heard the girl’s self-deprecating words. Without even thinking about it, she quickly wrapped her arms around the sorrowful girl and pulled her in as close as she could for a big, warm hug.
“You’re not a loser, Supernova!” She passionately vociferated.
“I…I’m not?” Supernova simply replied as her sad smile was replaced by a look of consternation.
“No, you’re not!” Kiwi assured the girl as she started to cry along with her. “Just because you dropped out of art school doesn’t mean you’re a loser! And it doesn’t matter if other people see you as a loser because you dropped out either! What would make you a loser is if you were to give up on yourself, and you’re not the kind of person who would do that!”
“I’m…not?” Supernova asked, sounding as though she were on the verge of a fresh set of tears.
“No, you’re not,” Kiwi responded. “And you know how I know that? It’s because you grabbed ahold of me when I fell off the roof and told me that I shouldn’t throw my life away just because things were bad right now.”
Just then, Kiwi broke her hug with Supernova but kept her hands atop the girl’s shoulders.
“You didn’t give up on me – a total stranger - when you’d thought that I’d given up on life,” She continued as she dawned an affable smile. “So I know that you’re not the kind of person who would ever give up on herself. And I have no doubt that someday, you’re going to amount to something great. Something so far above an art school dropout that everyone will forget you ever were one.”
Two new streams of tears started to flow down Supernova’s cheeks as she stared at Kiwi’s similarly tear-stained face. Though unlike before, these new streams of tears weren’t brought about by self-disparagement. These ones were brought about by feelings of joy.
Despite this fact, however, Supernova still felt a need to try and wipe them from her face.
“Thank you, Kiwi,” The girl lauded as she gently brushed her cheeks. “I think I really needed to hear that.”
“Don’t mention it,” Kiwi replied.
As soon as Supernova finished clearing the tears from her face – or at least most of them – she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Kiwi in a hug. One that somehow managed to be even bigger and warmer than the one she’d received only moments ago.
After the initial shock of having been so suddenly and energetically embraced wore off, Kiwi swiftly reciprocated Supernova’s hug, and together the two girls held onto one another genially for what felt like an eternity – but was, in actuality, only a few seconds.
“Hey, new girl! New girl!” Ms. Potpie’s booming, contralto voice abruptly shouted up from the street, causing Kiwi and Supernova to immediately break their hug and peer down over the ledge. “Your break ended three minutes ago! Get your butt back down here!”
“All right, all right. I’m coming,” Supernova shouted back.
Upon receiving a reply from Supernova, Ms. Potpie quickly went back into her shop and disappeared from view.
“Bitch,” Supernova uttered softly once her boss was back inside, eliciting a small giggle from Kiwi.
Once Kiwi had finished her light guffawing, she and Supernova both ceased their downward peering and simply stared at one another for a while in an awkward silence, with neither girl knowing what to say to the other now that their heartwarming moment had been brought to an abrupt end.
“So, um…I guess we both better get going,” Kiwi eventually spoke up. “You have to go back to work and I have to…find a place to sleep tonight.”
“You don’t have a place to sleep tonight?” Supernova inquired bewilderedly before giving a sharp gasp. “Wait, don’t tell me that was your apartment I saw with the extermination notice on the door when I was coming up here!”
“Yep. That was mine,” Kiwi admitted defeatedly. “And thanks to that notice I have to find somewhere to stay for the next few days. But since I’m new to this city and don’t have much money I’m not sure where that somewhere will be.”
“I see,” Supernova then said, right before she precipitously grabbed ahold of Kiwi’s hand. “In that case, you can come stay with me!”
“W-Wha – wah!” Kiwi began to say before Supernova yanked her arm and started to lead her towards the roof’s entrance.
“My apartment only has one bedroom, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Supernova explained as she ushered Kiwi across the rooftop. “There should be enough space in the living room for an air mattress or something. And don’t worry, you can have the bed if air mattresses are too uncomfortable for you. They don’t bother me. Oh, and if you need a toothbrush I think I’ve got an extra one -”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kiwi interrupted as she gently freed herself from Supernova’s hold and ceased walking. “You’re seriously just going to invite some random girl you just met to come live with you?”
“I’m not inviting some random girl I just met to come live with me,” Supernova replied as she turned around to address her companion. “I’m inviting the new friend I just made to come live with me.”
“F-Friend?” Kiwi asked in mild awe.
“Yeah. Friend,” Supernova confirmed. “I’m pretty sure after everything we’ve just been through together that’s what we are now.”
For a brief moment, Kiwi found herself speechless. While she did agree with Supernova that everything the two of them had just been through together had forged some form of a relationship betwixt them, she was shocked to hear the girl refer to her as her friend; a friend whom she was willing to let stay in her apartment.
In truth, Kiwi also felt that the bond she and Supernova now shared was one of friendship, but given how little each of them still knew one another she wasn’t sure she was comfortable accepting such a large and generous offer from the girl. However, given that she was in dire need of a place to stay for a few days she found herself in no position to turn down such an offer. Even if that offer was from someone she’d only just met today.
“Y-Yeah, okay,” She conceded. “We can go back to your place once you’re done with work.”
“Yeah, no. We’re going now,” Supernova said right before once again taking Kiwi’s arm and dragging her behind her.
“Now?” Kiwi asked with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. “B-But what about your job?”
“Screw it. I’ll find another one,” Supernova replied rather bluntly. “Hey! Tomorrow we can both go out and look for jobs together! That should be fun, right?!”
Kiwi wasn’t so sure that she and Supernova looking for jobs together would be something she’d consider ‘fun’. But regardless, she did think that having someone going through the job-hunting process with her would at least make it a bit more bearable.
"Uh, sure. Fun," The girl simply answered.
Within only a matter of minutes, Kiwi and Supernova made the journey from the roof of Kiwi’s apartment building over to Supernova’s apartment – which was located only about two-and-a-half blocks away from Kiwi’s. Though much to Kiwi’s chagrin, during the entirety of those few minutes Supernova had refused to let go of her hand.
As she entered the apartment of her new friend, Kiwi couldn’t help but take note of how much nicer it was than hers. It wasn’t anything worth writing home about, but it was undoubtedly larger and more well-kept than the rat’s nest she was currently renting from Ms. Potpie.
“You sure you’re all right taking the air mattress?” Supernova asked as she sifted through a hallway closet located near the living room. “’Cause if you want the bed it’s no trouble.”
“No, no. It’s okay,” Kiwi assured the girl. “You’re already being kind enough by letting me stay here. I don’t need to take your bed on top of that.”
“Okay. If you’re sure,” Supernova replied right before ceasing her sifting. “Dang it, it’s not in here. I’m going to go check my bedroom closet real quick. Just make yourself at home until I get back.”
“All right,” Kiwi replied as Supernova disappeared into the bedroom.
Feeling that the best way to make herself feel at home would be by watching some television, Kiwi took a seat on a small, two-person couch in front of the TV and promptly turned it on using a nearby remote.
“You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking...you talking to me?” A man on the TV said as soon as the screen lit up.
“Seen it,” Kiwi uttered to herself as she changed the channel.
“You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.” A scruffy-looking man on the new channel said.
“Seen it,” Kiwi repeated right before changing the channel yet again.
“Love means never having to say you're sorry,” A sorrowful woman on the third channel said.
“Sorry, sister, but no it doesn’t,” Kiwi sassed the woman before changing the channel for a third time.
“This is so bad, it's almost good,” A red-haired girl on the new channel said as she watched a band play.
“This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again,” A girl with glasses standing next to the redhead then said.
“Heh heh,” Kiwi giggled.
“Just think, we'll never have to see any of these creepy faces ever again,” The glasses-clad girl then said as she and the redhead looked around the room.
“Unless they're in your summer school class!” The redhead chided her friend.
“Shut up!” The glasses-clad girl strongly retorted.
“Heh heh,” Kiwi giggled once again as she put the remote down.
“All right, I found the air mattress!” Supernova proudly declared as she reentered the living room with a large, deflated air mattress in her arms.
“Uh-huh,” Kiwi absentmindedly replied without even taking her eyes off the TV.
“Now we just need to clear some space and we can -” Supernova continued before abruptly stopping herself upon realizing that Kiwi was paying more attention to the TV than to her. “Um, whatcha watchin’?
“Not sure. But it’s kinda funny,” Kiwi answered - this time taking her eyes off the TV to look at Supernova – before lightly tapping the seat next to her. “You wanna watch it together?”
“Sure!” Supernova replied gaily as she dropped the uninflated mattress on the floor and eagerly joined Kiwi on the couch.
The two girls then spent the next two hours or so watching a movie on TV whose name they didn’t even know. Though at no point did the fact that they didn’t know what movie they were watching bother either of them, nor did the fact that, in all likelihood, they’d started watching it after it had already started. They each just enjoyed sharing a period of time together were neither of them was hanging off of a building – Kiwi in particular.
And though neither of them said it that night, both Kiwi and Supernova got the feeling that their newfound friendship had only just begun.
“You ever find out what this movie is called?” Su-Z asked Kiwi as they continued to watch their mystery movie from the Dazzling’s couch.
“Nope,” Kiwi admitted. “In all honesty, I really haven’t even thought about this movie that much since the night we watched it all those years ago.”
“Yeah, me either. On both accounts,” Su-Z said as she scooched closer to her friend and rested her head on her shoulder, much to Kiwi’s surprise. “But you know something? I’m glad I came across it and that we’re watching it together again.”
“Why’s that?” Kiwi inquired.
“I guess because it helps put things into perspective, you know?” Su-Z answered. “Like how far the two of us have come since the last time we watched it; both in our friendship and in life.”
Kiwi wasn’t sure how to respond to this. She couldn’t deny Su-Z’s claim that rewatching the movie they’d watched together so many years ago did kind of put things into perspective, but she didn’t understand the girl’s remark about how far the two of them had come. She got what her friend meant about their friendship in relation to what it was when they’d first met - it had irrefutably grown stronger – but what she had a difficult time grasping was what she meant by how far the two of them had come in life.
As far as Kiwi was concerned, their station in life hadn’t improved much from what it had been when they’d first met.
While it was true that together she and Su-Z had become one of the biggest names in pop music between now and then, they’d also fallen from that grand stratum during that time. And even though they’d managed to get back on their feet somewhat by working and living on the Dazzlings’ emu farm since that fall, she hardly considered farm life to be ideal. She didn’t think it was beneath her or anything, but she also didn’t think that it was the life she was best suited for either – as evidenced by some of the struggles she’d experienced on her very first day of working with the emus.
“Y-Yeah. I guess it does put things into perspective,” She eventually responded to Su-Z’s statement.
“Mm-hmm,” Su-Z simply uttered as she went back to fully devoting her attention to the movie.
Kiwi likewise went back to giving her full attention to the movie, but not long after she found it difficult to keep it there. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but keep thinking about how over the course of the last few years she’d managed to rise to the top of the world only to come crashing down from it. And about how, despite having come to accept her current station in life, there was little she wasn’t willing to do or sacrifice in order to rise to the top again.