@Cinz_I_am on Followgram #Sixteen

Summer of sixteen: the moment when you believe that you will be friends for life, when you think you just have to believe in yourself to succeed, when being loved back by your crush is the greatest dilemma of your existence, in which a three-minute song and forty seconds can cheer you up.

We were always the same troublemakers.

Rita called 'the loudy', who sang in front of the Festanotte stage hoping to be noticed by the singer, a guy whose lyrics spoke only of parties and drunk and junkies people.

Giorgia 'the seductress', who had a lot of acquaintances to try to attract the attention of her mother, too focused on arranging the wedding with a very wealthy 20-year-old older man, a lot of bad stories and bad nicknames about her were spread. All those stories made her cry every night.

Lucio 'the rainbow salamander', they called him in that way because of his passion for reptiles and the fact that he was gay, whose coming out did not surprise his older sister at all, the only one who took care of him after the death of his parents in that tragic train accident.

And finally there was me, Carolina 'the short', because of my slender and skinny stature: I believed that to be cool and famous the important thing was to have a tough appearance, that aesthetic eccentricity meant having more chance to stand out than the others when you had not had a particularly troubled and dramatic life to speculate on.

But then in the blink of an eye you find yourself leafing through an old photo album and wondering where those dreams have gone, those evenings when we talked about our secrets and how much we hated the world, and above all, wondering where those friends who you loved have gone, being shut up in the house in front of the TV while sadly sipping a glass of vodka, at the end of a day of slavery that you would only like to forget.

**********

Rejected.

It can not be true.

I double-check the billboard hanging in the hall of the school more and more times: there is no doubt, it is really a rejection.

I remember not doing well on the exam, but I was hoping at least for the minimum score.

The truth is that I was too tired to study in the middle of the week of the big fair. Rosadoro celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the city for a whole month, for me, who work at the family pizzeria, it was hell: my part-time work has become full time, that stingy old curmudgeon of my uncle didn't give me an extra penny.

The ringing of the phone distracts me from my thoughts: it is Cinzia, my friend, she also had the results of her exam this morning.

"Cinzia, tell me you went well at least this time, please."

"We have adjacent universities, let's go to the little cafe together, I need a lot of coffee!"

I greet the old English teacher, still busy eating dried fruit from the bag under his arm, heading outside where a group of students animatedly discuss how easy the exam was, making me even more nervous.

At the tip of the road, in the middle of the anonymous crowd, she stands out taking photos with her selfie stick: light pink hair, matching makeup, white jacket sprinkled with color and short skirt, as I remember her from the first day we met.

She waves her hand in my direction and vigorously hugs me.

"Carol, let's take the selfie of sadness together!" she says "selfie of sadness" but on her face there is a big smile. As I know her, I'd say it's a nervous smile.

Cinzia is a very tall girl and besides that she always loves wearing very high heels, together we look like a comic duo. We try to get as close as we can and in less than a minute our photo is already on her social media, commented by hundreds of people.

"Did you pass the exam again with your luck?" she curiously looks at me with her big blue eyes.

"Rejected." I tell her tight-lipped.

Tears almost come to her eyes, she starts to hold me and pat me on the back.

"Stop it, I'm not a baby! Everyone is looking at us... "

And just in that moment, her radiant smile lights up the whole area: "And isn't that what we want? Become famous?" she winks at me.

"Maybe you, not me." I settle my bag as we are about to enter the small cafe, all the employees know and greet us, obviously because of Cinzia's beauty and her sunny personality.

We take our seats and order, then Cinzia squeezes my hands in hers, neat and beautiful. "Carol, do you remember the message you sent me yesterday?"

"Which? I've sent you so many..." I pretend I do not understand.

"The one about your old school friends."

Oh no, I don't want to talk about yesterday's pitiful evening, which will be identical to today's after the rejection.

"You told me you wanted to be famous back then, that you had your own band."

«Band... Let's not exaggerate, there were only two of us, the others didn't play any instruments. But yeah, we had a band and we even gave it a name. Who knows why I started thinking about it yesterday..."

“Maybe because of that reality show about friendship on TV? Anyway, let's get back to the point!"

"Here you are, two cappuccinos, two croissants with whipped cream and hazelnut cream, a vanilla milkshake and cannoli! Enjoy your meal!" the sweet guy smiles at us before going back to his work.

"Here it is, the point! My weak point! Have you seen how handsome Kevin is today? He is wearing a star-shaped earring!" Cinzia become coaxing and blinks, as she usually does when Kevin is involved... or some other good-looking dark-haired guy.

But yes, better take the opportunity to change the subject: "And what about Michele, the guy who checks tickets at the central station?"

"That one? Yes he is cute, but it's not like I can take the train back and forth just to see him for two seconds! But with Kevin it's different... I'm here, I eat, I watch him work, I eat a little more... "

“And you become a whale. Then what will your beloved followers say? "

"That I am always beautiful, obviously!"

She believes so much in her dream and she is committed to it with all her heart and dedication as possible.

Unlike me...

Let's think about something else.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***