He didn’t last very long. After scribbling messy poetry on neat blue lines, I kissed number four, then number five. I’m happy to say I found a place with him, and have stopped playing seventies pop rock.
“We Are Young” –fun.
The last week before winter break, my converted triple had turned into the family living room; my roommates, my sisters, our few friends, and I sat around our Christmas tree. Though it was Charlie Brown-esque in the way of height and thickness, we had filled it with our own paper ornaments that bore our names and our inside jokes and our love for each other. Our gifts came in varying forms of packaging—Meg’s were the only ones that were parceled in gift bags from Hallmark or Carlton Cards; Maria’s gifts were packaged in green plastic bags from the cafeteria, and my sister Abby’s were wrapped in magazine pages that read of “summer 2011 trends” and “horoscopes.” It was the first holiday season I felt a fierce, undying love for the friends I was surrounded by. I put on fun. because it was the only song on my iTunes that was untainted by other events. I also thought the title was quite fitting.
“Thank you, Ceesa!” Cady exclaimed, holding the leather-bound notebook I got her. She wrapped her arms around me. ‘Ceesa’ was my new nickname—but it is older than anything else. When Abby, Bridget, and I were small, Bridget couldn’t pronounce my name. The plosive t was turned into a soft c, the rest rolling off the tongue.
When my new friends say my new nickname, it is light. They are smiling. They surround me. My sisters are by my side. I found comfort in an old name. Ceesa, Ceesa. It is somehow warm, familiar. Maybe like a melody.
Pause
Theresa Flynn is a student at SUNY New Paltz, where she studies creative writing, digital media production and theater performance. If she were to be best friends with any fictional character, it would be Frederic Henry from A Farewell to Arms. Just kidding!—she has nothing in common with that sappy sucker. To follow Theresa, visit her website: theresaflynn.wordpress.com.
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