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“Noelle,” Akarsha breathes raggedly, her inhales and exhales unsteady and inconsistent. “Noelle, now that I’m dying, I have something I need to tell you.” She reaches a hand up to Noelle’s face, who sighs deeply. “Noelle… I… I… I was the one who was putting the sticky notes in and on everything around you.”
“I know.” Noelle doesn’t look up from the book she’s reading. “You told me this three months ago and I was mad at you then.”
“Oh,” Akarsha says, like she genuinely doesn’t remember it. “Then why are you here, next to my deathbed? Is it because you love me?”
“One, you aren’t dying. Two, I’m here because your parents have work and aren’t available to watch you, and Min and Diya are on a date. Three, I do not love you. Even ‘like’ is a stretch,” Noelle deadpans, closing her book with a loud smack. “Four, I told you all of this yesterday.”
“Don’t rember,” Akarsha replies, yawning. “My head hurts.”
Without batting an eye, Noelle passes her an aspirin. “‘Rember’ isn’t a word.”
“Oh, it’ll be one,” Akarsha says sleepily, gulping the pill down without any kind of drink to supplement. “I’ll make it one. Natural progression of the English language.”
“I’m surprised you’re coherent enough to say the word ‘language’,” Noelle responds. She opens her book again, but then Akarsha slaps her hand on the pages, pushing it down. Noelle frowns. “What do you want now?”
“I know what will cure me,” Akarsha whispers dramatically. “You can fix me.” She then sits up from bed, making a kissy face at Noelle, who shrieks and tips the chair she was sitting on over as she tries to get away. “Come on, Noelle, a true love’s kiss is the cure to anything.”
“Like I would ever kiss you when you have snot running out of your nose!” Noelle yells, crab-walking away from the bed.
Akarsha sneezes. She looks disgusting. She uses the sleeve of her hoodie to wipe away the snot that had collected underneath her nose, but her nose is still red and runny. “How about now?” she tries, in her most persuasive voice.
Noelle’s heart is thudding straight out of her chest. “Absolutely not.”
Pouting, Akarsha lays back in bed, crossing her arms. “It worked in… what was it… Beast and the Feast.”
“Not even close,” Noelle comments, setting her chair back up. “I know you know the name of that movie, you and your little sister have watched it a million times.”
“Fine, it’s Beauty and the Beast,” Akarsha begrudgingly agrees, “But isn’t Beast and the Feast way cooler? When me and Min start a band, that’s going to be the name of it.”
“Well, if we were in that movie, I would certainly be the Beauty,” Noelle says, smirk leaking into her voice as she picks up her book and tries to relocate her page.
“So you admit that we’re soulmates?”
“Absolutely not. In this purely theoretical situation.”
“That’s fine, I’m okay being the Beast, he’s hot in both forms.”
Noelle blanches. “You find the Beast attractive ?”
“Yeah! And Belle. They’re both worthy.” (Noelle agrees that Belle is attractive, certainly more attractive than the Beast, but purely from an objective standpoint.)
“Worthy of what?”
“My attraction.”
“You make it sound like it’s some kind of highly-prized reward.”
“Well, duh, cuz it is.” Akarsha stretches her creaking limbs out. “The Romans fought wars to gain my favor. Akarsha and Aphrodite both start with A.”
“Aphrodite is a Greek goddess.”
Akarsha waves her hand dismissively. “Semantics. My point stands. I don’t just hand it out to everyone. To have my eyes on you… that’s a big deal!”
“And somehow the Beast meets that criteria?” Noelle tries to hide her smile behind her book, but it ends up looking very unnatural, and she can tell that Akarsha can tell.
The other girl ignores the question entirely. “Min is a really good singer,” she says, nestling into her pillow. “Do you think I should play the drums or the guitar?” She suddenly gasps, sitting up in bed, energized. “Wait! You play a string instrument! You should come play the guitar! I’ll play the drums.”
Noelle stifles a sarcastic giggle. “Play in a band? With Min?” She shakes her head. “Your sickness must have taken your brain with it. I’ll call the hospital immediately.”
“I have a brain-eating amoeba.” Akarsha grins contentedly. Then she frowns. “Wait… I think Min wants to play the guitar. But she’s not very good at it right now. Don’t tell her I said that.”
“I won’t,” Noelle reassures. “And I play the piano and violin. Not just ‘a string instrument’,” she continues, clearly offended.
“Yeah… it’s all coming together… we’ll get you a keyboard and we’ll get Diya a bass…”
“I don’t think Diya’s cut out to be a bassist,” Noelle says, grimacing as she imagines it.
“Nah, she can totally do it, I have faith,” Akarsha argues. “Together we’ll be… the Beast and the Feast.”
“I would never play under that name.”
Akarsha opens her mouth, probably to try and convince her, but she’s interrupted by her mother opening the door to her room.
“Oh, Noelle! I cannot thank you enough for watching Akarsha while we were gone,” Akarsha’s mom says gratefully. Noelle tunes into her ‘people pleaser mode’ and smiles, standing up with her things.
“It was really no problem, Mrs. Anand,” Noelle says politely even though it definitely was a problem.
“I hope she wasn’t too much to handle?”
“No, no. She was a joy.”