The Parking Lot Ocean

You’ve known Stella since you two were small enough to fit under the same umbrella.

That’s not an exaggeration, by the way. One of your mom’s old albums has this photo of the two of you at six years old, crammed under one very yellow umbrella during a downpour outside of your old apartment complex. Stella’s cheeks were puffed out because you’d stepped on her bright pink shoes and she was pretending to be mad about it. She really wasn’t, though. She never really could be, and especially not at you.

Fourteen years later, and some things haven’t changed. She still can’t hold a grudge for more than five minutes. She still has that same laugh, which is a little too loud for indoor spaces. The kind that makes strangers turn their heads and then smile without needing to know why. And she still has those eyes, the ones that curve into perfect crescents when she smiles, which might have been the most beautiful pair of eyes you’ve ever seen in your life (though you’d never admit it).

What has changed, though, is that Stella is, by any reasonable measure, kind of a star.

Not in the tabloid sense, by the way. She’d absolutely hate that, probably. Or maybe she’d find it hilarious, really hard to say with her, to be honest. She’s popular in the neighborhood open-mic scene. Being half Korean and half Canadian, she’d grown up bouncing between two languages and two sets of relatives and somehow absorbed the best parts of both — directness, warmth, and an accent that shifts depending on which family member she was talking to. She sings so effortlessly, like she’s not thinking about it all, like the melody was just sitting in her chest waiting for a reason to come out. You’ve watched her do it in karaoke booths and empty parking lots, and, more recently, actual venues with actual people, and it still gets you every time. Not because she’s good, though she is, but because she looks so incredibly happy doing it. Like she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be.

You, on the other hand, are comparatively, extremely and absurdly… normal. Which has never bothered either of you.

STELLIE 😼🧁

hey

hey hey hey

are you awake

u’re doing the thing where u fall asleep with your phone on your face again arent u

You are awake. You’ve actually been awake for the better part of twenty minutes, phone resting on your chest, doing an extremely convincing impression of someone who is not, in fact, waiting to see if she would text. You wait another thirty seconds before you answer, a personal record for restraint.

im awake

LIAR I CAN tell when you’re doing the slow reply thing

😾

anyway.

come outside w me!

stella.

its 11 pm.

yes!

and?

i have the physics thing tomorrow

the “physics thing” you have is at 2 pm.

U TOLD ME THIS

LIKE

3 TIMES NOW HELLO?

I COULD PROBABLY PASS THIS PHYSICS THING FOR U AT THIS POINT

you probably just don’t want to hang out with me, huh?

it’s alright.

woe is me.

😔

i guess i’ll just

go alone, then.

🤧

have fun with isaac newton, i guess.

it’s whatevs.

bye.

FOREVER.

DONT EVER TALK TO ME AGAIN.

you’ve known me for fourteen years and this is the manipulation tactic you’re going withits WORKING though isn;t it

😊

…

SEE

i can feel u typing an excuse rn

DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

i will go to ur apartment and drag you out by the ankle

IVE DONE IT BEFORE

you have never ONCE done that btw