Wonderful

I pushed the sliding glass door aside and ran right into my dad, who grabbed my arm and narrowed his eyes at me.

"I saw you talking to him." He snapped.

"That's because I was telling him that I couldn't hang out with him tonight, that's all!" I replied, squirming away from him. "Would you just calm down?"

He sighed and looked at me suspiciously. "So what are you planning on doing tonight?" He questioned, thinking he would get something out of me. Not going to happen. At this age, I knew how to lie well enough. I smiled innocently and told him I was thinking about sleeping over at my friend Shannon's, and oddly enough, he believed me.

After pretending to pack for her house under the watchful eye of my sister, I was able to sit down and edit pictures I hadn't gotten to. I opened up one of Pilot kicking sand up in the air that I took from my window while he wasn't looking a couple weeks ago.



“Bye, everyone! See you tomorrow!” I waved at my family and walked out the door. After taking a deep breath, I walked quickly over to the dock. Pilot was sitting there expectantly, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. After exchanging a quick hug, we made our way silently to his car.

I shut my eyes and he drove a couple miles down the road, humming along with the radio until he parked abruptly.

“Okay, you know the rules, keep your eyes closed.” He chuckled excitedly, slamming the door behind him. I trembled with anticipation when he led me a couple steps away from the car. “Alright, you can open your eyes.”

I did as he said. “Oh,” I muttered, trying to hide my disappointment. “We’re on a beach.”

“Yep! I thought going to a bar sounded a bit lame tonight. I ordered pizza.” We walked over to a blanket that was set up with a duct-taped flashlight sitting on it. “Cool, no one stole my stuff.” He beamed, sitting down.

I did the same, shooting him a questioning look as he picked up the flashlight.

“I can’t really afford candles.” He smiled sheepishly as he clicked it on. “Anyway, you’re probably wondering why I chose the world’s most boring location.”

“Yes, actually.” I responded truthfully.

“Well, I feel bad for being an asshole last night.” He explained. I stared at him, confused. “You know, on the merry-go-round? That was pretty damn rude on my part. So,” He leaned in and smiled. “I was thinking we could just chill for an hour or two and just… talk, I guess. I want to get to know you a little more. Damn, I suck at explaining stuff.”

I giggled. “I understand. So, you ordered pizza?”

“It’s my favorite food group.”

I nodded. “I haven’t had pizza in like, two years at least.” His eyes widened and his mouth fell open as if I had told him I was a bank robber.

"Well, this has to change." He gasped, his voice hoarse. "Anyway, uh, I said I was gonna get to know you, so... talk to me about something."

"Um, my birthday is in July, so uh... when's yours?"

"April. How is that relevant?" He raised an eyebrow. "We're not talking about me here, lady."

"Well, sorry!" I lifted up my hands and sighed. "I have an older sister named Lillian. Do you have any siblings?" I nudged him playfully.

"Yeah, two brothers and one sister." He yawned. "Oh, and that brings me to my next point. I'm going to visit my mom tomorrow, so we can't really do anything unless you're willing to meet my family..." He batted his eyelashes as if to say "HINT HINT!"

I nodded. "Am I allowed to come with you?"

"Yep. My mom loves visitors."

"What about your dad?" I asked shyly.

"He died five years ago," He smiled. I bit my lip awkwardly, not knowing what to say to that.

"Um, the pizza's here." I muttered, pointing to the car rolling up. He nodded and got up, running to get the food. For a few minutes, I sat there just doodling my name in the sand. Once the pizza guy left, he sat back down and opened the box.

"So... um.. how did your dad die?" I asked quietly.

Pilot gave me a weak smile. "Bar fight.”

"Oh," I sighed, taking a slice of pizza.

"Yeah, he called some guy's wife a cunt and a lot of shit went down. But that's okay, he was a cool guy. I remember his last words to me were, and I quote: 'Pilot, stop being such a lazy jackass.'" He explained, wiping away the strings of cheese that stuck to his chin. "Anyway, uh... what do you do for fun?" He offered weakly. "Or does 'fun' not happen for you?"

"Oh, shut up. Well, um, I'm obsessed with taking pictures, as you know."

"Do you have like, a total hipster room? With polaroids of random things all taped to the walls with weird underground rock band posters and clippings from disturbing newspaper articles? Cause that's what photographers have."

I giggled. "Well, it's got the polaroids, yeah. But why would I have disturbing newspaper articles?"

"Because artists find creepy shit beautiful. They'll like, see a dick drawn in blood on a wall and they're like, 'Damn... that's cool'. Am I right?"

"No, that's not right." I shook my head, still laughing.

"Well, they're always saying they see the world differently..."

"That doesn't mean we're morbid!"

"Oh, I get it." He snapped his fingers before rubbing away the pizza grease on his fingers on the blanket we were sitting on. "Hey, how long do you have until we need to get you home?"

I bit my lip. I hadn't thought of that. "Well, I told my dad that I'd be sleeping over at my friend Shannon's, so he's not expecting me back till tomorrow."

"That could have been a good idea. Do you have anywhere to stay?" He questioned, turning the flashlight off. We were plunged into the darkness with nothing but a thin sliver of the moon to help us see.

"No," I muttered sheepishly. "I should have thought this through better."

"Fuck it, wanna stay at my place?" He asked.

I froze up and thought for a moment. Staying at his house sounded plain awkward. I could sleep on the couch or something. I sighed. "Yeah, sounds good." I agreed, nodding quickly.

We sat in the dark for a while, just staring at the waves and talking about little things such as 80's movies to what we would do during a zombie apocalypse. Then he had an idea.

"Have you ever played Nazi zombies on 'Call of Duty?'" He raised an eyebrow and smiled at me. I shook my head and told him that I had heard of it, but I had never played. He got up and started gathering things. "Come on, we're gonna go to my house and we're going to kill some zombies." He demanded, dragging the blanket to the car.

We set all our crap in the back seat and then drove to his house, listening to the radio.