Chloe was the looks. Bombshell blonde, bikini body, I didn't stand a chance against her when it came to dating.
Not that either of us were dating anyone. We both liked the same boy. Adrien Agreste. The epitome of perfection. Golden, shining hair that filtered sunlight through it. Emerald green eyes with glittering flecks of gold. Flawless tan skin. I spent all day dreaming about him.
Not that dreaming was going to get me anywhere.
I have been best friends with Chloe since I was a little girl. Ever since she tripped on the playground and I gave her a bandaid with a ladybug on it. She said that ladybugs were her favorite animal. I said that they were insects, not animals, which made her laugh.
Her house is practically my second home. That's where I am now. Sitting on the balcony, letting the soft breeze gently separate the strands of my hair. I had worn it down today, because Chloe was always pestering me to leave it out.
"Mari, come on. What, are you daydreaming about Adrien again? You've been staring into space for the past 5 minutes!"
I lift up my back and slide the throw pillow that had been resting on my deck chair out from under me. Then I throw it at her, and she puts her hands up to shield her face, giggling. She tosses it back to me, and it smacks my leg, its rough patterned linen rubbing against my skin. The hot sun burns my back as I bend down to pick it up. Paris has been having a heat wave lately and it has been killing all of us.
As I leaned back into my chair, she starts talking again.
"Really, though. What have you been thinking about? You were staring into the clouds."
"...Nothing."
She giggles.
"Okay. Be that way. But I still think you were fantasizing about Adrien."
"Fine."
I don't want to talk about Adrien right now, so I try to switch the topic.
"How's your app going?"
We are both taking a programming class, and our final project is building an app. Her's is a health app, which teaches people about first aid. It's pretty cool.
"Eh. Good. I haven't added much. How's yours?"
I'm working on an electronic therapist app. You can go to chat with the avatar, a cute red and black spotted creature named Tikki.
"Good."
She gets up from her chair, short yellow sundress fluttering in the light breeze. As she walks inside, I catch a glimpse of one of her tattoos, a ladybug, on the backside of her thigh. After a few seconds, she returns with two popsicles.
The taste of my cherry popsicle is sugary-sweet and the cool ice freezes my tongue as I lap up the dripping red liquid thirstily. Chloe eyes me strangely as she slides her popsicle into her mouth, her bubblegum lips forming a perfect little circle around the bright lemon popsicle.
If I could sum my day up right then, I would have said it was perfect.
But little did I know what would happen that night.