SHORT:
My friend Kayla is brilliant but one time her sister was going to Scotland and said, “want me to bring you back anything?” and Kayla said “Scottish Cheese”.
She meant cottage cheese.
MEDIUM:
Kayla lives across the street from me.
When she first moved to the neighborhood, she had a broken arm. She cruised by on a Razor scooter, her bright pink cast powerfully propped up on the handle.
With a drag of her shoe, she slowed to a stop, and looked me up and down.
She informed my parents that “[she] should be the only five year old in the neighborhood” and that she was “not a fan of me.”
We’ve been best friends ever since.
LONG:
In middle school, Kayla was obsessed with root beer and Elvis Presley. She had a life-sized cardboard cutout of Elvis that she would hide in the shower. Her sisters would have 95 heart attacks each time they mindlessly pulled back the shower curtain to find “The King” staring back. Kayla would snicker in her room and sip her sweet, sweet, A&W. Life was good. Life was All Shook Up.
Kayla and I have known each other for almost twenty years and have never gotten in a fight.
Her dad used to take us to the Home Depot parking lot after it rained and we would drive through the huge puddles with the windows down, flooding the inside of his white pickup truck. I was their Kimmy Gibbler. I’d enter their house without knocking. Sometimes I’d be so excited to see Kayla that I would run over in my socks. Every time I did that I had to give my dad a quarter.
As tweens, we learned the Thriller dance, filmed stop motion music videos, and spent summers drinking so many water bottles on her trampoline that we filled an entire chain-link-fence-full of holes with them (we recycled them for money at the end of the summer, don’t kill me in my sleep Greta Thunberg).
Kayla has three older sisters, so her house was the place I learned about The Backstreet Boys, Britney, and Justin Timberlake (specifically the song “Sexy Back”). I wasn’t allowed to listen to songs like “Sexy Back” or “Sk8r Boi” by Avril Lavigne, so naturally Kayla and I would blast them in her room and feel “like badass hoes”.
One time I went to Outback Steakhouse with Kayla’s family and everyone got drunk off Manhattans and we somehow ended up lying underneath all the display tents at Sports Basement.
I love Kayla because at my Bat Mitzvah she wanted to show off, so she did a backflip and landed on my cousin.
He still knows her as “the girl who flipped on me”.
I love Kayla because she studied for every high school final with me at the Cupertino Starbucks.
I love Kayla because we went to pride in matching rainbow dresses and every man in the world hit on her.
We also went to a music festival and every man in the world hit on her.
They’re always like, “excuse me, I saw you from across the way and couldn’t help but notice how beautiful you are.” They’re not wrong, but usually I’m like, “dude please just let us charge our phones.”
Just this past weekend, I moved Kayla into her new apartment and the mover called her adorable. Kayla may not know what cottage cheese is, but she sure knows how to get a man’s attention (she says “it’s her hair”).
I love Kayla because she was very cool in high school and always invited me (a not as cool person) to parties and places. She still invites me to hang out with her cool Penn State friends. I usually stand in the corner in a jean jacket and watch the floral skirt wedge-wearing beach-y wave blowout gals cling to their boyfriends. It’s a bit lonely, but fascinating to take in. Plus, as the night goes on, most of those gals go from floral skirt wedge-wearing beach-y wave blowout people to “let me tell you my whole life storyyyyyy you are actually like weirdly cool” people. And I live for a drunken life-story moment.
I was terrified to tell Kayla that I was trans and getting surgery. I cried about it the entire day before. I don’t really know why. I think maybe it’s because, in a way, she knows me better than anyone else. I felt like she would know, deep down, just how huge the moment and the declaration and the plan was for me. And I hate huge moments. I’m scared of big, heavy things happening all at once. I’m scared of being seen head-on.
Kayla always saw me, but from upside down in a flip. From behind a camera or side-bangs. Through the net of a trampoline. I think she did this (subconsciously but) on purpose. To make me feel comfortable. To meet me where I was (and a lot of the time, I was in motion).
When I finally told her, she whipped out wine and cupcakes. I still have a picture of her with the tray– she’s wearing an oversized Golden State Warriors t-shirt, wine glass in hand. Smiling and pointing to the food.
Confetti cupcakes to celebrate more years of us knowing one another.
Better than ever these days but also the same as always.
BONUS:
Ok, I googled Ode again. Computer says:
“Ode is a type of lyrical stanza. It is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally” (nailed it). It also says “a poem meant to be sung” so maybe go back and sing this if you feel so inclined!
I love you, K! This would probably be better timed if I wrote and released it on your birthday in March, but you’re just gonna have to deal with it coming out NOW because it’s 10pm on Monday and this is what CAME TO ME this weEk!
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-Meg
Social- @megspope@mpopetweets
Venmo- @mpope-venmo-26
Website- meganpopework.com
Donate to The Audre Lorde Project
New York Memory Of The Week: One time guy entered crowded D train and yelled “New York City make some fucking noise!!!!!!!!” only to be met with complete and utter silence. I wept with laughter at the sadness of the moment for the rest of the ride home. I miss this.
News Of The Week: JoJo Siwa is gay. Cue parents everywhere being furious that their child’s JoJo Siwa Rainbow Bedding Is Now The Gay Kind Of Rainbow.
TikTok sent Siwa a rainbow cake for coming out which is so cute and on brand for her. I should’ve gotten a cake in the shape of a dead bird or something when I came out.
Rosie O’Donnell posted a TikTok congratulating Siwa that is so freaking funny to me. I parodied it here.
Promo Of The Week:
Want 10 dollars off cool underwear for people who menstruate? Go to http://shethinx.com/meganpope to get an awesome pair of Thinx with a rockin’ discount!
Shoe Of The Week: This slay boot my girlfriend and I saw on the way to get Vegan baked goods.
