Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
COCO CAME BACK from Paris a brand-new woman. Light blue streaks in her hair, a second piercing in her ears, grungy makeup, fashionable boots, and leather clothes. It was a continuation of the osmosis era, she told her hundred million followers on Instagram, accompanying her sentimental caption with some of the photos she took in France, along with one of her in her private jet with a champagne flute in one manicured hand.
Takoda had liked the post, not as petty as I was, and against my will, I found myself going through her comments, desperate to find something I didn't know I was looking for.
How are you still single??
You and @takodac better get married or I'm rioting
Why Cleo?? 😭😭
Not me hoping for a movie moment, when Takoda realizes it's been you all along
You guys realize that there's quite the age gap between these two girls right? Why do you keep placing them side by side??
My normal reaction would've been to feel bad, but this time the only emotion I could identify was determination. It was strange and a little surprising, but I accepted it, and in usual fashion, impulsively texted Takoda.
We need to post more thirst traps
As the text whooshed off, my dad walked into the living room with a cute baby pink bag in his hand. The sight of him instantly brought a smile to my face. I'd been expecting him, but after almost a year of only catching glimpses of him, I could only be prepared so much. Since he arrived last night, things had been moving in a blur. I couldn't tell left from right or up from down. The house smelled like him, felt smaller, cozier, and the sound of his laughter traveling down the hallway was one of those things you remembered on bad days, when you tried to pull happy thoughts out of the depths of your memory. It was so precious that I wanted to freeze this moment and save it for later.
He beamed when he noticed me curled up on the couch, his hair damp on his head. He'd been sitting by the pool all day with my mom and even offered that I joined them, but doing that would only expose me to a whole new level of cringe. In theory, it was all very cute, but I wasn't interested in watching my parents kiss every five minutes, thank you very much. They were in their late forties and had the kind of love a lot of young people craved and went lengths for. They were basically the embodiment of I want to grow old with you, and they loved to rub it in everyone's faces.
"Do you ever get out of the house?" he asked as he took his seat next to me, but I was too comfortable to sit up, so I refrained from moving.
"My best friend has this thing she does called having a social life that doesn't revolve around me and working towards her future, and my sister is refusing to talk to me, so I basically have nowhere to go."
"And your boyfriend?"
It felt like wind had been knocked out of me. The fact only seemed to settle after my dad said it. Takoda and I hadn't made any official statements about the status of our relationship yet, so people were still hesitant about what we were and how to label us, or if this was just one of those things that would fizzle out after some time, but I realized that once we did, that was one word that would be associated with me whenever he came up. Boyfriend. Takoda Calebs would be my boyfriend in a matter of days.
