Annabel’s Heart in Chaos

“Why don't you have a boyfriend?” Ugh, that question! It was a normal Sunday, the nineteenth of September, and I was sitting at a table at Starbucks with my best friends to celebrate the last day of summer before the school year started. You would think they would want to talk about our senior year, but… nope. My dating life was one of my friends’ biggest problems at the moment, especially since I didn't have one. Like we say, non-existent. Jasmine was sitting across the table from me, holding a cup of cold chocolate with chocolate syrup, extra whipped cream, and sprinkles on top, staring at me with her you-are-not-getting-away-with-this-again face. A face I knew very well by now. I’ve known Jasmine since we were eleven. We bonded through our love for food—especially anything with sugar—and have been best friends ever since. She was a ray of sunshine, the kind of friend with positive energy and a smile that could light up a room, which became annoying at eight o’clock in the morning, but when she wanted to, she could be a real pain in the ass and pretty freaking scary. “Yeah, why don’t you?” Kel backed her up while eating his fruit and watching me closely, waiting for an answer. Kel was the new member of the group. We met in the last grade of middle school. He was the exact opposite of me. Athletic. “You’re the one to talk.” I gave him a judgy look. He had been crushing on the same guy in our class since the first grade of high school, James, and he hasn’t even asked him out yet. “It’s been three years. Ask him out or get over him,” I added. He broke eye contact and ate a banana from his plate, ignoring my comment. His swimming coach had him on this new diet. He wasn’t allowed to have anything with sugar or coffee and was only allowed a specific amount of carbs. So basically, he couldn’t eat anything fun. Finding out he broke his diet when he went to a café with his friends would probably kill him, so out of all the delicious unhealthy choices, he ordered fruit. As easy as it was to make Kel shut up, it was that much harder to make Jasmine give up. When she set her mind on something, nothing and no one could stop her. In this case, she was determined to find me the love of my life. Even if I didn’t want one. “Oh, come on. You have like a million childhood friends who would make excellent boyfriends, which is, by the way—” She took a quick glance at Kel and they both turned toward me, “—the perfect love story.” I have seen this sketch at least a hundred times by now, and I’m pretty sure that Kel and Jasmine rehearse their lines every night before we go out. “Why don’t you just pick one?” I have to point out that I did not, in fact, have a million childhood friends. I had five, which I know sounds like a lot, but if you ignore the summer holidays, I only hang out with two on a regular basis, and that was because our parents were best friends. I moved my mochaccino a few inches away and pressed my forehead on the table. “Ugh, not this again. I feel like we’ve been having this conversation non-stop every week for the past year.” From the moment my parents’ best friends only had boys close to our age, they’ve been trying to convince me to choose one to date. As if it were that simple. The problem is that only the thought of being with one of them in public, without being forced to, made me want to puke. They were more like annoying cousins, or maybe even brothers. The ones you only hang out with because you have to. Not exactly the ideal potential love interests. We only meet when our parents do. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all, but I knew them well—too well—to think of them that way. Which was something my friends couldn’t understand. “Annabel, my dearest friend—” Jasmine put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a huge grin, “—we will continue to have this conversation until you pick one, because you have never, not once, given us a solid reason why you refuse to date one of them.” “What about: I don’t have any feelings for any of them. I think of them as my relatives. I can hardly stand them.” I turned my head from Kel to Jasmine and back to Kel, desperate for this conversation to come to an end. “My vote is on Felix,” Kel said to Jasmine, completely ignoring my extremely valid statements. If those weren’t good enough reasons, then what was? “I ship the Theobel relationship.” A combination of Annabel and Theodore. As much as I loved Jasmine, she was not good at making ship names. “No,” Kel said. “She has to be with Felix. He is so hot.” I was very careful about Jasmine and Kel never finding pictures of them on my phone and never meeting them. I had my reasons for that. They saw Felix once when he came to pick me up from the cinema, but that was it. They never met anyone again in person, and I was planning on leaving it that way. They felt like a different part of my life. Like I was a different version of myself around my family and around my friends, and I quite liked it that way. I wasn’t planning on intersecting those two parts of my life anytime soon. But when does life go according to our plan? “But Theodore and Annabel are soulmates. They have to be together.” I snorted. How did they come to those conclusions? Both scenarios sounded absurd. Felix and Theodore seemed to be the run-ups for my future husband. Both the same age as us. Both equally annoying. Our parents are best friends, so we meet at least once a week. I’ve known them for as long as I’ve known myself. Felix was the sporty one. The classic male. Brown hair. Slightly taller than me, with green eyes and pale skin. Didn’t care as much for school and had a girlfriend of almost two years. Still, that was not an obstacle for Kel to be planning the perfect wedding for us. Theodore was kind of the exact opposite. At least two heads taller than me. Brown hair and blue eyes. Loved to exercise and had a great academic record. He wanted to be a doctor, or something similar to that. Now about his relationship status, to be honest, I had no idea. We didn’t really speak about personal matters. The only reason I knew about Felix’s relationship was that he accidentally let something slip a year ago. “No, my vote is still on Felix,” Kel insisted. “Why?” Jasmine asked, more annoyed than someone should be for their friend’s imaginary boyfriend. Those arguments became out of hand. I’d learned to let them fight until they settled in the middle and then smoothly change the conversation. “She has to have some experience before dating the man she will marry. That was another point of Kel and Jasmine. I had never had a boyfriend or my first official kiss. I only had a crush on a guy from camp three years ago that had blown up in my face like a ticking time bomb. To be completely honest, having a boyfriend just seemed like a lot of work and too time-consuming. Something I didn’t have time for. It was the last year of high school, time to pick a career and a university, and that was enough stress as it was. That without the complication of a relationship burdening me. “Oh, that’s right. Yes.” Jasmine agreed—actually agreed—with Kel. “Well, then it’s settled. She will date Felix for a few months, break up with him, and then date Theodore and marry him after university.” The jury had come to an agreement. I checked my watch; it took them fifteen seconds less than last time. Oh yes, I timed them. I was too used to this argument. I waved my hand between them to get their attention. “Do I have a say in it?” They gave me the death stare and yelled, “No!” at the same time. I rolled my eyes, taking the last sip of my coffee. “So, in a desperate try to change the topic, what are you thinking about university applications?”