Caution: Words Haunt

I woke up to the smell of waffles. I looked over at his clock and saw that it was already nine thirty in the morning, but I didn't mind. I don't feel like going to school. I did so well yesterday that it would be a shame not to reward myself with a day off!

Ugh, I hate sleeping in jeans! As I slid out from under the covers, my cramped legs were stuck to the denim. I changed into a pair of Zach's basketball shorts and went out to the kitchen to steal his waffles.

"Morning, sunshine." he said sarcasticaclly.

"I smell waffles!!!" I said and grabbed the plate of eggos from his hand. I sat down at the counter where the syrup was. Right as I opened up the bottle, he jumped across the counter and stole the plate back.

I dropped the bottle after flipping the lid shut and ran around the table to get it back. He didn't see me coming as he grabbed the syrup and I tackled him to the kitchen floor. "Mine!!!" I yelled and seized the waffle plate from the counter and ran.

"You're so immature! There's more in the box in the freezer!" he said and lunged after me, armed with a fork.

"Then why are you putting up such a fight for these?" I teased him.

"Because... Shut up! We all know I'm impatient." He joked and grabbed for the plate. I jumped up on a chair and he gently started tipping it.

"Oh, you wouldn't knock you're best friend off a chair, would you?" I asked with mock sweetness.

"You want a bet?" I said and pretended that he was going to knock it out from under me. I jumped off it, almost losing a couple waffles on my descent, and hid under the table.

"You're not gonna win that easily!" he said and crawled under the table after the waffles. I scurried out from underneath it and ran to the freezer. "Fine! You win." I said and set down the plate as I opened up the freezer. He reached for it and right as he did so, I slammed the freezer, grabbed the plate and screamed "Psyche!" and ran with the plate.

"You suck!" he laughed and gave up the fight, finally making his waffles.

"So what's up? You didn't feel like going to school today?" I asked as I cut up my trophy waffles.

"Uh, no. It's Saturday, genius!" he laughed.

"For real?" I asked as he nodded. "Let's do something, then!"

"Nah, I'm tired today. Let's just watch movies or something." He said.

"That's lame. We could always go to the roof." I offered. He stared at me.

"Dude, we haven't gone to the roof in forever! It's too cold, anyways!" he complained.

"But, like, don't you miss the good ol' days when we'd go out and get pizza, then climb onto the building and just look down at the people who couldn't see us?" I asked.

"I guess. But, like, I just made waffles, so I don't want pizza." he said.

I sighed. "Well, we could just go up there for the hell of it. Don't you miss the peace you felt from being up there?" I asked.

"Uh, I guess. I mean, it's always better than getting yelled at, but my mom's been gone so long, I don't really need peace." he said.

"Please? For old time sake, man." I said. We used to always go onto the roof on Friday nights and watch the people run around as if life was some big race. I missed it; being able to watch everyone scurry but feel as if you're immortal and don't ever have to worry or rush; just sit omnisciently over them like a God of some sorts.

"Maybe tonight, alright? But for now, I want waffles." He said as he grabbed them from the toaster.

*****

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I climbed up the ladder as he watched out for cars on the street. I miss the danger of having people catch us climbing up a department store's roof. I remember one time a rent-a-cop went crazy on our asses because when we saw him we used a shopping cart to escape. For some reason, it never occured to us that they go around on bikes and can easily catch up to a boy and girl sharing a cart in a parking lot.

He ascended the ladder and sat down next to me as I looked down at the sidewalk below.

"See? Don't you miss the serenity?" I asked.

"Yeah, now that I think about it." He commented. What I loved most was that up here, we didn't have to talk. It's like as long as we sat up away from the thoughts and worries of the rest of the world, our minds could click together and just send our thoughs and feelings from one another. We never had to speak a word when we were up here together, but we still felt close.

We sat up there for hours when I got a call from Hannah. "Hey, babe. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies tonight?" she offered. Damn, I can't go back to my house yet because Dad doesn't work on Saturdays. But I couldn't just leave Zach's and expect to come back in at 10 o'clock.

"You know, I'm kinda busy tonight. Maybe tomorrow it would be cool?" I asked her.

"Yeah, sure. See ya tomorrow, babe. I love you." She said.

"I love you too." I replied.

"I love you too, Hannah!" Zach screamed into the phone right as I was about to hang up. I slapped the back of his head. "Dumbass." I laughed. He laughed too, and with that, we went back to his house to watch some movies.