Freefall ✓

27 | donatello

You're so wonderfully weird

—mike hannigan (friends)

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"Dude, Ash! Stop it with the bananas already! Qué ladilla!" Brent yelled.

"Shut up—I'm in first place now."

"Cónchale! Again?! What's your problem?!"

Sprawled out on Brent's couch with a white console in hand, I crunched on Doritos, still remembering how today should've originally gone by. The initial plan was for the three of us to hit the gym together and then treat ourselves to some pizza from the supposedly best Italian restaurant in town.

Instead, we ended up skipping the gym altogether and getting together at Brent's to play Mario Kart. The leftover pizza we'd ordered a few hours ago was lying on the coffee table in front, in a mishmash of ripped Dorito packets and nacho cheese tins.

I sat up, overtaking Ashton's previously leading character and hurling a bob-omb into him, on the way. I crossed the finish line, winning the race and watching my name shoot to the top of the ranking.

"NOOOOO!!!" Ashton completely lost it, leaping up onto the couch and bellowing. "You pedazo de pendejo! I was so close to the finish!!!"

"Bro, chill," I backed away.

He hurled the videogame console against the floor, which crashed with a bang that scared the crap out of me and Brent. We cautiously looked down to the smashed controller, springs and bolts surrounding the partially shattered plastic.

"Brooooooo—what did you do that for?" Brent picked up his splintered console, upset.

"Sorry, man. It was an emotional outburst."

"Yeah, tell that to the broken console."

"Don't worry, I've fixed consoles before. Get me a skewer and I'll make it new."

I snorted. "So this isn't the first console you've broken?" 

Ashton disregarded my assumption.

"There must be skewers in the garage. But you'll have to get your ass down there yourself man, sorry. I'm not moving from here."

"Fiiiine, I'm going." He jumped off the couch, landing on the floor with a solid thump.

Brent and I loitered around, too lazy to start another round. 

I reached for my phone, opening the chats with no real purpose. My fingers tapped onto Audrey's profile picture before I could stop them. 

She was depicted sitting cross-legged on some rocky land patch on the coast, leaning back on her hands. Her smile so bright it could light up an entire galaxy. Golden rays of sunshine glowing on her cheeks. Her beatific honey eyes gleaming, contemplating the ocean horizon. 

Gosh, she looked beautiful.

I missed her. I wanted to dive right into that picture through my phone screen, grab her by those aureate cheeks and kiss the heck out of her.

"You're seriously obsessed with that girl of yours, eh?" My head jerked up at Brent's words. He finished one of the Doritos packs, aggressively crumpling the bag and tossing it into the bin. 

I decided to skip the denial of the fact that he had just caught me stalking Audrey's profile. "Shut up, man."

He chuckled. "Just telling you what I see."