Mabel

18

Talia does not, in fact, mutilate my onesie, because she's so stupefied by my explanation for why she totally shouldn't because I did try.

Talia, Morin and Luca are all sitting around the living room, judging me.

"You tried to confess..." Morin says slowly, "with a fish fact."

"Don't talk to me about confessing, Morin Valdez," I snap right back and Morin lays a firm punch to my arm which is every bit as bad as his bony nudges and I flop over onto Luca with a yowl of pain.

Talia looks even more confused.

Luca shoves me off of him while laughing at all three of us, the all-knowing asshole.

"No, but really, Mabel. All you had to do was kiss him or something. The mood was totally right!" Talia practically laments, grieving the wasted opportunity like it was her own and I don't even get why she's so invested in this but I can't judge her for it. I'm invested in it too, after all.

"Really?"

Do I know nothing about romance? I should've just kissed him? The mood was right?

"Yes!" Luca cuts in, sharply, apparently having had enough of all of this, exasperatedly telling me, "Just... just kiss him. No... floundering."

Okay, no, that's why he wanted to have an input. A stupid pun.

Over Luca's booming laughter at his own joke, I hum unnecessarily loudly.

That terrible fish pun gives me an idea.

<・)))><<

I've gotten myself into some sort of weird loop with Kai, all thanks to Luca Ruiz.

It starts with me being a little late to the studio because I may like art now but that doesn't mean my tardiness as a human being and wonderful ability to sleep through seven alarms will magically disappear altogether. It's just a little less frequent.

But as I'm rushing out of my dorm, book in hand,  I just so happen to see a beanie-headed physics student loitering around the science block who has a fantastic back, even through his hoodie, and before I can even acknowledge what I'm about to do, I yell, "Hey! Kai!" and watch as he turns around with incredulity and wide, pretty eyes.

"If I were a fish I'd be hooked on you!"

He laughs so hard he drops his file and all of his papers spill out.

It may not have worked as intended, but I did get to spend some time with him peeling his notes off of the concrete, so it's something.

<・)))><<

It's only a few hours later when I happen to stumble into Kai on my way to get lunch, and think of another ingenious line that is... sort of like my last one but better.

"Hi, Mabel, you wanna go get some foo—"

"Have you ever been fishing, Adkins?"

He closes his mouth, mid sentence after being interrupted, and stares.

"...No, actually I h—"

"Because I think we should hook up."

I expect maybe an embarrassed laugh or a judgmental shake of the head.

What I don't expect is for Kai to thump my shoulder, scolding, "Mabel Ortega!"

He at least turned a lovely shade of pink, though, and I got a photo out of it.

I'll count it as a win.

<・)))><<

A night later, Kai is coming around to study some physics with Talia–no 'heart-eyed-mabel's allowed after the last time when Talia claimed she was just third wheeling our flirting the entire time.