“Fine.”

A four letter word

That can answer any question.

 

“How’s your coffee?”

“Fine.”

 

“How do you think you did on that test?”

“Fine.”

 

“Is everything okay?”

“Fine.”

 

Except everything isn’t okay

And it most certainly isn’t fine.

"Fine" doesn't even begin to explain what she's thinking.

 

“How’s your coffee?”

“It tastes like black tar.  Did Steve make it again?”

 

How do you think you did on that test?

“I’m a little nervous.  Did you know the answer to number 6?”

 

“Is everything okay?”

“Everything is  kind of monotonous.

I think I’m stuck in a rut. “

 

Fine is a word that covers the surface.

It’s enough to satisfy curiosity

But not fully quench it.

It leaves something

Missing.

 

“Fine” was an answer she lived by

Until she met him.

 

He is everything that “fine” is not.

 

He is electric blue high tops that don’t match a single thing that he’s wearing.

He is beach blonde hair that stands out in any crowd.

He is bright brown eyes and a crooked smile that almost make her forget that

He spilled a bright red slurpy on the front of her favorite white blouse.

 

It isn’t a small stain.

It’s large and sort of resembles a stab wound.

Her shirt is ruined and she’s running late

But everything is awesome.

 

Maybe it’s because he made her late for class.

Or because her favorite shirt now makes her look like a murder victim.

Maybe it’s because when she says “It’s alright,  I’m fine!”

He doesn’t believe her.  

 

He tells her that she can’t possibly be fine.

Nobody can be fine when they’re dripping from head to toe

In ice cold cherry slush.

He offers to buy her a new shirt.

She offers to buy him a new slushy.

 

He suggests that they go out for ice cream.

And even though she has a class,

She agrees.

 

After all,

You can tell a lot about a person

By their favorite flavor of ice cream.

 

From that day on

Living by “fine” is no longer enough.

Not when she’s got him to remind her what awesome feels like.

Why settle for Vanilla ice cream when you can have Blue Moon?

 

With him by her side,

She finds herself on late night adventures.

Sometimes they follow food trucks around town

And have a picnic in the back of his truck.

 

Sometimes they go to the sketchy liquor store on the corner

And buy the weirdest ice cream flavor they can find.

(Their favorite so far has been Pancake Batter).

 

Sometimes it’s nothing more than a night on the couch watching Youtube videos.

There are many different sides to Youtube

And she’s pretty sure they’ve found all of them.

They’ve seen everything from funny cat videos

To grown men acting like two year olds.  

They both agreed

It was awesome.

 

Each day with him brings something better.

The sun is brighter.

The flowers smell better.

 

Even the lady

Who stands on the corner of Plymouth and 54th street  and screams at pedestrians

Seems a little nicer.  

 

There’s a skip in her step that wasn’t there before.

There’s a grin on her face (even on the rainy days).

There’s something about her that just screams

“I’m HAPPY!”

 

And she is happy.

Because even though bad things happen,

Something amazing usually comes with them.

 

Like when a stranger dumped a cherry slushy on her shirt,

And ended up becoming her very best friend.

 

With him by her side, she knows

There’s adventure on the horizon.

And because of that,

Everything is awesome.