Tales of True Love

…Popuri…

Popuri had daddy issues. And brother issues. And boyfriend issues. Popuri did not do well with boys. Popuri's father left them when she was still, like, super young. Popuri's brother was, like, so bossy and rude and cocky. And Popuri's boyfriend? Ugh, he was way too self-involved, and hey, how did she know he wasn't hooking up with other girls for the three quarters of the year that he wasn't in Mineral Town? And, like, don't even get her started on the way her brother and her boyfriend fought over her, it was like Kai spent more time trying to get Rick riled up than he did caring for her… Ohmigosh, what if there was like, unresolved sexual tension between the two? Popuri swore she had read about that in some magazine or another.

Claire had learned all of this in the first fifteen minutes she had spent with the girl with bubblegum for hair. Popuri was very… open. And when she had found out that she had a new neighbor – a new female neighbor – she had already decided they would be bestest friends. This decision had something to do with her other best friend wasting away her life in a wine bottle, or something like that.

"That sounds… rough?" offered the farmer, unsure how to approach the freely-bared soul in front of her. Popuri nodded vigorously, pounding a fist on the fence they were sitting on.

"Right?! So what about you? What's your boyfriend like?"

"I'm not really dating anyone right now."

"Really? I guess that makes sense! You're looking for, like, a blank slate, right? Tabouli Rasa!"

Claire resisted correcting her. "Yeah, something like that."

"Then I bet you've got some awful ex-boyfriend stories to share." She was almost giddy at the prospect.

"Well, not so much ex-boyfriends, but…"

"Ooooh, you've gotta fill me in! At our first sleepover party! Oooh, I can't wait. My house or yours?"

"Wait, what?"

"Ohmigosh, I'm being like, a crazy creeper right now, aren't I?"

"No, no, it's just—"

"It's okay! Like, ugh, boundaries, right? Yeah, Kai's always telling me about those things. I'm sorry, I'm working on that."

Claire spent the next three minutes fervently assuring Popuri that she was not, in fact, a 'psycho-clingy-stalker-girlfriend'. Once Popuri had calmed down – it did happen, eventually - she stretched, hopped off the fence, and said:

"Now how 'bout we take a bath? You've got to try the hot springs on Mother Hill. C'mon!"