Picking Dahlias

Dahlia

“Cici I have to study this is my last semester exam. I really don’t have time to party tonight.” I don’t even bother to look at her from my anatomy book. I need to memorize for the bone practical and I know exactly how this will go.

I feel the bed creak and rock as she climbs on my bed. I see her little hand slide on to the top of my book and she pulls it down out of my face. “BUT DAHLIA IT'S NOT A PARTYYYY!” She cries like a toddler at me.

“You already bought the booze and weed didn’t you.” I roll my eyes at her. I close my book and cross my arms. “I need to study Cici. You need to study, like everyone needs to study. I’m buggin out over this practical. I don’t have time to party.”

She completely ignores me “See you don’t have time to party, but you have time for a wake. Everyone has time for a good old fashion wake!”

I’m confused and lost with her thinking “Uhm who died and what do you think a wake is. Cause that last one I went to was a total bummer.”

She shines her mischievous little smile at me. Fluffs her dark brown curls and winks “Well I guess it isn’t a traditional wake. I am in grief over the greatest loss to music history.”

She feigns lightheadedness and crashes into me on the bed knocking me over slightly. “KIRT MY LOVE, GONE TOO SOON! WHAT WILL OUR FUTURE OF MUSIC HOLD WITHOUT YOU.”

We both laugh hard belly laughs. I shout “Get off dork! Fine fine we’ll do your little wake, but last time then you leave me alone for the weekend to study.” 

Cici jumps out of bed and she's wearing only an oversized grey shirt that says Virginia is for lovers. “Dude this will totally be the best fuckin wake ever! We need to find you someone to hook up with, you have not had a single pregnancy scare in your life let's play it RISKYYYY!” 

I’ve been Cici’s roommate for the past year. Every second of it has been exhausting, she becomes my best friend and worst influence. She pushes me, she is incredibly intelligent and no one catches on. I’ve seen her grades and yet here she is teasing me and telling me to let loose. I usually try to escape her parties or hide and ignore them. One of her homecoming parties I came out of my room for a glass of water and found the whole marching band playing the fight song with Cici leading them. She is the main character and I’m a side character without a doubt.

“It’d be pretty embarrassing as a med student if I got knocked up by accident. Like I knew pretty damn well how to avoid it.” We both laugh, a deep laugh.

I watch Cici as she goes into fill party planning mode, she uses the phone we have in our room to start calling friends. Every time she says we are going to have a party, it seems like the entire school shows up. I put my things away and start tidying up our shared room. Cici leaves our dorm room and I can hear her knocking on the other girls doors around our hall. I don’t know how Cici managed it, but everyone on our hall agrees to open their doors and start to make room for the throng of people that I’m sure are already on their way.

“Are you planning on wearing that?” Cici comes back into our room and eyes my oversized jeans and sweatshirt with mild disgust.

“I don’t know,” I throw back, “Are you planning on looking like that?” Cici makes a jump for me laughing.

“Definitely not! This would totally disrespect the memory of my love!” She starts rifling through her clothes that are piled in odd places around the room, pulling pieces of clothing out, studying them, and then tossing them over her shoulder. I sit quietly, watching the scene unfold as laundry lands haphazardly all across the room I just started to straighten up. “f**k, I don’t know. I”m going to shower.”

She huffs into the bathroom and closes the door while I sit and stare at the mess that she created. Cici is so good at creating chaos with little to no help or hesitation. I love her dearly but her ability to create and control chaos is overwhelming. I still don’t know how we managed to become friends. It seemed like one day she just formed from thin air as my roommate, claimed me as her own, and hasn’t let go. It’s been 4 years now, and I still don’t know why she likes me. Once when I asked she said I mellowed her out. I shake my head to myself, wondering what a non-mellowed Cici looks like.

I decide that I should probably look for something to wear as well. Looking down at my outfit I realize that Cici is right. Even though I don’t feel like a party tonight, I still don’t want people to see me in this. I find a nicer pair of black jeans, and a red tank top. I take the moment of silence while Cici is in the bathroom to change in our room before standing in front of our full length mirror to apply some mascara and a little bit of lip gloss. By the time Cici comes out of the bathroom. I’m sitting at my desk skimming over an anatomy book. 

“Jesus Cici!” I slam the book closed and stare at the ceiling. “Why must you always walk out of the bathroom COMPLETELY NAKED?”

Cici stands casually in the middle of our room staring at the pile of clothes on her bed. “You know, for studying to be a nurse, you sure are squeamish about being naked. What are you going to do in a hospital when you need to give an old lady a sponge bath?” she snickers at her own joke, pulling on a thin black tank top and a pair of underwear.

I roll my eyes at the comment settling back in the chair unamused by her comment. I’m not uncomfortable, I just don’t like the idea of being that vulnerable. It’s not that I haven’t been naked in front of people, I just try and avoid it. I pop out our gray hand vacuum as Cici starts to pull on her JNCO jeans. I turn and realize she’s trying to talk to me but the noise of the vacuum is drowning her out, I could let her go on since she doesn’t realize she's speaking into the void. I think one of the things I love about Cici is her constant talking. I am a quiet only child, noise always was absent in my home growing up. Having her in the background buzzing around constantly fills something I’ve always have been missing. 

I shut off the little vacuum, my hand vibrates still, I shake my hand a little to get rid of the numbness. “Sorry, I’ve completely missed everything you just said.” I state clearly as CIci pulls over a large Nirvana t-shirt, it looks almost like a dress as she pulls her head through. 

“UGH, YOU NEVER LISTEN!” She dramatically groans, I can’t help but roll my eyes. She has no idea how much I do listen to her ramblings. “So like I was saying hopefully when the cops get called, they always do, Mikey will be on campus. I for sure won’t get arrested again then.”

I try to recall who this Mikey is, a f**k buddy, a friend or maybe an ex? “Sorry, but who is Mikey?”

“I keep forgetting you never met him, your always busy or studying. Mikey’s my little brother he’s a big boy copper now.” She rolls her eyes and flashes her wallet pretending its badge. “OFFICER LITTLE MIKEY YOU’RE UNDER ARREST! SHOW ME YOUR BOOOBIES” She runs at me and tackles me on the bed. She starts tickling me, I laugh so hard i can’t breath. I use all my might to reach a fluffy pink pillow and thwack her over the head.  “ASSAULT OF AN OFFICER! ARREST HER!” She tries to pin me down with both hands, her 160lbs feel like 900 on my tiny frame.

“Alright alright, Uncle I call uncle.” I half laugh out. We both lay on the bed out of breath.

She gasps for air as she says “I’m so glad I have you, you’re the yin to my yang dude.”

“You keep me young Cici, now let me nap before the party, loser. I don’t have a sexy British pen pal to swoon over. I need my beauty sleep so guys have to actually see me.” I tease, she has been obsessing over this man for months. 

“He’s a pen pal not my husband. I haven’t even told him I like him yet. I am waiting for his next letter, supposedly his grandmother is sending him on a blind date. I need to gauge my timing just right so till then when his date goes bad i can invite him to America for a trip and I will sweep him off his feet.” She taps the tips of her fingers together like an evil mastermind. “THEN I WILL CONQUER ENGLAND IN COBAINS NAME MWAHAHA '' We both start giggling. “Alright I’m off to get the goods” she hops out of the bed and pretends to stick the landing “I’ll see you later.”

She struts out the door as if the silence is kicking her out. I lay on top of my blanket unsure if I want to sleep or clean. I’ve already done my makeup, I don’t want it ruined but my bed is holding me tightly in place. I feel a wave of sadness fall over me. I’ll never be as interesting like Cici, I’m boring to the core, I’m not worth the time. She includes me in everything, I feel like I’m just dragging behind her. I shut my to not stair at the blank popcorn ceiling above me. It’s just like me bare and boring, i can feel myself fade into nothingness of sleep.

The door burst open “PARTY TIME MOTHER FUCKERS!” I open my eyes and watch people stream into our living room from our opened bedroom door. Someone hits the boom box and I can feel the deep bass thunk in my chest. Cici pops into the door frame “Hey earth to Dahlia it’s party.” I force my body up and rub my eyes. Someone calls her and she scurries away. I mosey to the bathroom and stare into the mirror. 

My mascara is smeared and my lip-gloss has moved to my cheek creating a sticky, tacky mess. I grab a washcloth and begin cleaning up my face. I stare at the blank canvas of my face, I grew up in a small Philly apartment with my mom and dad, then just my mom. I have no interesting stories to tell, no experiences worth noting. I’m just boring person and now I have to shake off this self pity and entertain a crowd of interesting people with the most interesting person alive.

I touch up my make up a little and turn to enter the party. I begin to pour myself a beer in a solo cup as I see Cici standing at the door talking to someone. She's standing very defensively, I could tell she was tense. I could either hide or help, I should help, then I could be useful.

“What’s going on Cici?” I inquire, a young man about a foot taller than me towers in front of me. His amber eyes burn a trail up and down me, his eyes focus a little too closely, I feel seen in a way I hadn’t been before. I investigate him in return; his body is lean, even in his uniform you can tell he must work out daily as the short sleeves wrapped around his biceps look like the seam could burst at any minute. He has one of the tacky tribal tattoos peeking out from under his uniform. 

“This is my lame ass little brother Mikey. He’s trying to crash our wake.” She says snidely, I can see the resemblance is there even faintly. While Cici is a curvy voluptuous woman, her brother is a beefcake if I've seen one. Is this whole family bred beautiful? They both have almost black hair, although his is cut into a buzz cut. Their skin is olive tan, and where her chin is gentle, his chin could cut glass. His figure could engulf Cici, but she stands there chest puffed out like unintimidated by the man in front of her. 

His hand reaches out to shake mine “I prefer Officer Martin, I was sent by the R.A. to ask you two to turn it down.” His voice is deep and smooth like chocolate ganache. “My guess is your Dahlia? Cecilia has talked a little about you. I’m sorry for whatever trouble I’m sure she’s gotten you into.” 

I reach and take his hand, it’s warm, rough and strong. “I guess everyone needs an enabler, I’m just happy I haven’t been arrested yet.” I hope it stays that way.

“HEY! I’m right here!” Cici pouts and crosses her arms. For once she’s not the one holding my attention. I can’t help but stare into her brothers fiery amber eyes like a moth to a flame. He doesn’t seem to pay any mind to her either. She looks back and forth between us and raises her brows. She smirks a little and relaxes, lord only knows what shes plotting now, but for once I’m not particularly curious.

His beeper goes off “Uh where's the labs Ci? Just got a call someone might have tried to break in. They didn’t get in but want me to take a peek” He rubs the back of his neck, he’s clearly uncomfortable asking his sister for help.

Cici has a devious smile spread across her face. “You know, Dahlia is always in the labs she might know a quicker way.” She shoves me out of the door frame. “Thanks so much Dahlia for showing him the way you're so sweet.” She slams the door shut and disappears. Why is she this way? I Always have to clean up her messes. 

“Sorry about her, but I guess you know how Cici can be. Follow me labs are just a few minutes away.” I start towards the stairwell and give him a small wave to follow.