A Supposedly Staggering Infinite Work of Heartbreaking Illumination I'll Never Read

Cecilia

For You, The Stars
Chapter One: Eyes Like a Cat
Installment 1

Cecilia was Isabella’s younger sister. I’d had a crush on Bella for the last few years of college, but it was an unspoken agreement between us that she was out of my league. I was the one she’d turn to when one of her jock stoner boyfriends was chasing another girl. I was the one who walked her home from parties on frat row at night, kinda sorta hoping for a goodnight kiss but having to settle for “I’m so comfortable with you.”

I told myself that I knew Bella better than anyone else, and that we were closer than she was with anyone, including Paulie, her on-again off-again lover and a good friend of mine. One of the crazies who ate acid nearly every weekend and were always looking for something wild to do.

I met Cecilia during the party week just before graduation. She was the youngest kid in Bella’s family and had that precocious, grown-up-too-fast manner learned from her older brothers and sisters. She was cute where Bella was beautiful, short where Bella was tall. She was “too young” for me, but she was about my speed and I took her around from party to party, enjoying having a little cute girl with her midriff bare on my arm until she ran into a small crowd more her own age and took off.

I didn’t see Cecilia again until two years later, after I’d moved out to San Francisco. Bella told me her sister was going to be looking for a place to stay and asked me to keep an eye on her.