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A quaint and old film, if Andi had to judge it himself, but still one of the greats amongst Park Planet’s massive array of hits. 'Guinevere and the Seven Star Pups' sat loaded on a dingy computer attached begrudgingly to its office table, due to the risk of being found to be messing with something they weren't supposed to. The two of them, younger than the movie itself, now had a little under a minute or so left before they could share with the rest of their peers that they had watched this movie too.
All they had to do now was give pure focus as Guinevere carries on her story:
“Seeing you now awakens my heart in a way I never thought possible before. I truly believe I can achieve my dreams with you by my side.”
With the long-awaited confession to her prince now in place, the reprise of the film’s signature chorus played out, accompanied by the sounds of a choir. The melody built up, voices high and long, but it paused. With only two lips in frame, Guinevere and the prince softly pushed into each other. The music immediately picked up again in a sharp, held, unified note.
Andi and Frankie did not share the singers' passion for the scene, looking away to mimic convulsions at the prompt.
Though still, Andi urged clamped eyes back to the computer screen, peering one slightly open. It had been enough to see the princess, whose face was now visible from a different shot of the kiss. Meanwhile, the other eye covered the prince’s plain, yet so unsightly, puckered face.
The kiss lasted way longer than he'd have liked, but getting to encapsulate Guinevere’s beauty up close made it a bit more bearable. With only her in his eyes, he could forget there was ever a prince to begin with. The way her soft features melted into the comfort of the other pair of lips allured Andi in a way he could not describe. Anything that could have been said was replaced by the action of opening his one eye on the princess, further to take in the full experience that came with her side of the screen.
Internally, he asked why the male characters had to be so boring in comparison, anyway. He was already picked on enough for liking these 'girly' princess movies. Though he thought it wasn't all that girly, since it was only because the female heroines had always been just so… beautiful to him. There was a special beating heart for his favorite character in particular: Princess Guinevere.
He made it no secret to whoever brought up the movies about his feelings towards her. The soft face shape, the smooth and stylized hair, just the way she presented herself to the world at all. Everything about her was an exact fit to her title, where you didn’t even have to question if she was ever a princess to begin with. He couldn’t say the same for himself… to be a ‘prince’. Nevertheless, despite his unworthiness, he persists in his affection. However, he has learnt to be more careful around Frankie, regarding the subject from how much she groans and protests any upcoming spiels he’d be about to confess.
Speaking of which…
As Guinevere’s lips had at last departed from her new lover, Andi called out a quick, “Okay, it’s over.” Nudging Frankie from leaning away so dramatically.
She looked back just in time for the heart closing in on the two royals to dissipate into black, and the credits appeared. “That’s it?!” Frankie exclaimed.
Andi muted the credit music. “Did you like it?”
“Yeah, it was great! Other than that gushy romance crap with the prince, though it was great!” She perked up, only to ultimately deflate in her seat a second later. “But so short…”
That got a chuckle out of him. He had to agree with her on all of that. “Well, this is one of their oldest movies. Park Planet now has a lot of money to make them longer.”
“Only because they’ve become so greedy,” she accused. “Ugh… Why does everything have to cost so much? The park, the movies, even their toys are hundreds of dollars!”
Frankie revealed from under her a battered-up Guinevere plush she'd been using as a makeshift chinrest throughout the movie, lifting it for emphasis. Face to face with the doll, she took a moment to outline the messy seams that gave way to its asymmetrical features.
“If anything, I’d at least like to have a real Guinevere plushie,” she pouted.
“Umm… Maybe… If we save enough birthday money…” his words trailed off as he realized the flaws in that thought process. He furrowed his eyebrows in a grimace.
“That’s so many birthdays from now! Look at how we had to ‘rent’ this movie in the first place!” Frankie looked expectantly towards Andi, but as soon as it was clear that he didn't have a follow up, she turned away to sit with her own words.
Not lasting long, since soon a cat-like smirk appeared on her face.
Andi, inattentive to the gesture, pursed his lips to break the silence, “Huh. Yeah… Let me run a virus check. Don't want the old man to yell at us again for using his work computer.”
“Maybe… there’s a way to pirate the doll, too…” Frankie waggled her eyebrows.
He crossed his arms on the desk and huffed in amusement, “You mean, just stealing it?”
“Oh, Andi, you genius! This is why we’re friends.” She reached her arm over his taller frame to hug his head to hers.
“On that note, are you planning on just sneaking into the park or…?” Andi questioned.
Frankie sat back down, eyes focused on nothing in particular while swinging her feet back and forth in the gap between the chair legs. Andi stared at her for a second, but ended up using the distraction to work on the computer uninterrupted.
Again, it didn’t last long; she shot out of her seat with widened eyes. “The claw machines outside the entrance! Wait!” Frankie ran out, taking a minute, then came back with a robotic frog head in her palm. “Remember Boombox?”
Andi grinned back, caught on. “Okay, you've got my attention.”
The Guinevere plush teased them as it edged the drop forward, but the ultimate tumble back made Andi and Frankie groan in annoyance as they too collapsed to the ground.
“Forget it! It’s just a stupid doll, anyway,” Frankie scowled.
“You really wanted it, though…” Andi said in a small voice.
“Eh…” Frankie sighed. “We can come back another time. Boombox probably needs some tweaks.”
But Andi still clutched his chest. Even a small dream like this, and they couldn’t attain it. What does that say about any of their other future dreams?
She glanced over. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go home.”
His eyes never left the ground on the walk over to the exit, hoping his bangs covered any potential emotion Frankie’s peering eyes could capture on him. It was almost a perfect, melancholic walk home; however, a bump and Frankie’s consequent fall interrupted it, prompting Andi to look up. And he was glad he did.
Their eyes met at the same time, but she was the first to greet them and smile. The rest after that lay in the backdrop, compared to him fixating on all the features that he would steal through sketchy websites, now in front of him. She was beautiful, whimsical… perfect; she was Princess Guinevere. So unlike Andi in the scraps he wore, mixed with his uncoordinated appearance.
A part of it made him grow envious. If only he could be like her. When the thought crossed his mind, another part inside felt a little ashamed. The kind of stuff he got picked on for. He didn’t feel this way towards any of Guinevere's gallant princes, but towards her. She expressed herself so freely, whether it be her looks, her interests, her emotions… All the kinds of things that made him think it'd be easier—better—if he'd been born the girl the other kids teased him to act like. The same ways he aligned himself in—things he liked and what he wanted to be—it wouldn't feel so different.
But Andi was trapped. Like a doll in a claw machine. Trapped by reality, while Guinevere floated in her fantasy. These sorts of things were never possible, were they?
Though even just for the minute he spent near her, in her presence, Andi felt anything and everything there was to be. Even the impossible. At this moment, it started to make a little more sense.
Frankie kept a consistent eye on Andi since they’d come from the park. Which always led her to observe his sulky actions, just as he was when they were leaving. She didn’t think the doll had mattered to him as much as it did to her. Could it have been something else? Either way, Frankie was tired of seeing her friend so upset.
They were outside, near the center of the district, where Andi was staring lost at a Guinevere mural being cleaned of its graffiti. Frankie stepped beside him to pretend she was watching too, but stole glances at Andi’s reaction. His eyes swelled big and glittered slightly from the light hitting the side of his face.
“How could they destroy something so beautiful?” he spoke at last.
“Huh? But they’re fixing her.” Frankie stared at the Park Planet’s designated cleaners.
Andi looked down and slouched. “Not them. You… You don’t understand.”
She looked back over with a raised eyebrow and peered to see his face. His hair was covering his cheek, but Frankie saw the smallest of drops run down from his eye.
Frankie huffed, moved in front of him, and cupped his face. She felt his wet tears stain her palms, but she kept them there and straightened his slouching frame, which ended up above her own height.
She glared up at him. “Come on, Andi. What’s wrong? I don’t like seeing you sad, so… chin up!”
His face got puffed up by her hands squeezing his cheeks together, and the sunlight was now in his eyes. He took her hands to relieve the pressure and positioned his gaze down at her again.
Before she could get a verbal response, another child’s voice, one that Frankie recognized as a somewhat familiar peer, called out, “Ooooh! Francesca and Andi are about to kiss!”
She wasted no time whipping her entire body around in the direction to answer, despite not seeing who said it at all, “Eww! No, we’re not! Andi’s like a brother to me!” Frankie double-backed, expecting to see Andi's mood somewhat improved by defending him against the kid's clearly teasing tone, only to notice his face now stained with a long stream of tears.
Frankie’s expression faltered to a similar state. "D—Don't listen to them, Dee! They're being mean. They don't know what they're talking about. Just because I'm a girl and you're a guy—"
"Frankie, just leave me alone!"
All she was going to say was that it didn't make her see him that way... Why was he so upset by that? Somehow it seemed like that made his mood worse! If saying that made him snap, did that mean he wanted it to be that way? Did Andi have a crush on her?
They stopped talking for the rest of the day, leaving Frankie alone to wonder about the implications of her theory. However, she couldn’t truly get her thoughts in order until she was out of Andi’s presence.
She trudged through the door home, without turning back to wave Andi goodbye. Her troubles had already gone off in her mind all at once: They were just friends! She’s never seen him that way before! What is she supposed to do with this information?!
Much more plagued her mind, but before she could tackle it, she took in a sharp breath, counting to four before releasing it for four seconds as well. Wow, that Park Planet channel show sure comes in handy sometimes.
Her thoughts released again, but slowly: Andi was a great guy, but she didn’t like him like that. She’s never liked anyone like that before. The whole concept of being in a relationship where she had to kiss someone, like in all the Guinevere movies, repulsed her. All those naked ladies on that freaky website who were only ten miles away didn't tempt her at all either! Nothing about 'the talk' did. Not even the cute little birds and bees… He must know all that already, right? Things were going to get so weird now. Should she tell Andi that she doesn’t like him? But she didn’t want to hurt his feelings…
Frankie couldn’t come up with a suitable solution before sleep caught up to her, and the next day arose. Maybe she’ll get lucky, and Andi won’t want to talk to her again for the day. …But she doesn't want to stop talking forever…
Before she knew it, the doorbell had rung, and she knew it was Andi. It was always Andi.
She trekked to the door, using each step as an opportunity to breathe deeply. Despite her best efforts, she still managed to make it without a single last-minute solution.
Andi had that typical frown from yesterday, but this time he looked Frankie in the eyes.
“Frankie… I have something to tell you,” he started.
Oh no…
Andi didn’t hesitate while walking in, “I should apologize first for getting mad and blowing you off yesterday, though. So, I’m really sorry about that.”
“Pssh! It’s whatever. Let’s just forget about the whole thing, actually!” Frankie suggested, but obviously wasn’t being accepted by Andi.
He stood to face her directly. “I’ve been thinking about this thing for a while. And I didn’t know what I should do with all these feelings, but… I want to tell you, because—”
“—Because we’re best friends!” Frankie shouted while sweating.
Andi hugged himself with one arm. “...Um… yeah. But…”
“And I’m so glad we’re best friends! Because… I… uh… couldn’t ask for a better friend to be my best friend!” An awkward, extravagant smile lay unnaturally on her face.
“...Me too? But actually, I’m kind of worried about how our friendship will be affected after I tell you.”
“Well, don’t worry, because no matter what you say, you’ll always just be my best friend! Nothing more and nothing less!” Frankie punched his lanky body in a roughhousing fashion.
Despite this, a soft smile appeared on his face. “Well, that’s good. I think I’d like—”
“I don’t like you like that!” Frankie blurted out. She really couldn’t stop him after all. She felt bad, but didn’t want this to continue.
“Huh?” Andi tilted his head.
She sighed, “I’m sorry, Andi, but I don’t want to be boyfriend and girlfriend or anything like that. I only like you as my best friend! Please don’t be upset about it!”
Andi blinked. “Huh?!”
She paused and raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you wanted to tell me…?”
“Pft!” Andi bent over to laugh, and even with her grievance, it was actually nice to see. “No! Of course, not!”
“But you—I thought you were disappointed that I only saw you as a brother to me!”
Andi’s face fell fast. “Well, I was upset, but not for the reason you thought I was.” He kept shifting his weight, before the words eventually came out. “…It was because you called me your brother…”
“Isn’t that what I said?” Frankie cocked her head.
Andi breathed, “Well… Now, I’ve realized that I’d rather have been called something like… your sister, instead.”
Frankie’s eyes flickered to her sides for a second before she sighed, “Thank goodness! I thought you—Phew!”
“You don’t care?” Andi prompted with a soft voice.
“You just wanted me to call you my sister? Is that all? But you seemed so sad the whole time.”
“It’s not just that. I’d like to be seen by everyone else as a girl too,” she revealed.
“Ohhh~!” Frankie nodded with progressing lack of hesitance. “That’s cool, too! We can both be girls together!”
Andi let out a breath, and her posture collapsed. Frankie noticed how droopy Andi's mouth and eyelids had gotten since their last ‘talk’, now that they were close enough to see each other face to face again.
“I was so worried you’d think I’m... bad or something... for wanting that!” Andi whined.
“No way! It's not bad at all! This is way better than what I thought was going to happen. Instead of gaining a ‘boyfriend’, I gained a sister!”
Andi found herself finally smiling anew as Frankie hugged her closer again. It was a little silly to discover that Frankie thought she was asking her out, even though Andi knew that Frankie saw romance as boring. But bound like this, Andi believed in herself and any dream the two would come upon along the way.