Say Anything

I stayed quiet throughout most of the car ride to Derek’s house. I just stared out of the window and saw the familiar houses that we used to ride on our skateboards by when we were little. I was a pretty big tom boy when I was younger and most of my clothes consisted of Derek’s old baseball shirts.

“Do you still play baseball?” I blurted out. Derek turned and looked at me before cracking a small smile and looking back at the road in front of him.

“Nope. Quit after middle school.” He stated. I looked at him and saw him scratch the back of his head nervously. He seems to do that a lot. I just shrugged and continued to stare out of the window. Watching the trees pass by quickly made my stomach feel disgustingly horrible, and I became a little lightheaded. I just ignored the feeling, knowing it was just a lame side effect of my stupid addiction.

It was already beginning to rain pretty hard by the time we pulled into his house, and I mentally cursed the local weatherman for saying it was going to remain cloudy for the rest of the day. We got out of Derek's car and saw a few young kids playing basketball in the driveway next to his. The two boys who seemed to be in about fifth grade were jumping over puddles and shooting a basketball into the hoop against a garage. One of the boys stopped and waved to Derek. Derek grinned and waved back.

“Hey Derek!” The boy yelled and walked over towards us.

“Hey Johnny." Derek replied. "You’re going to get sick you know.” Johnny just smiled and shrugged while Derek ruffled his hair and pushed Johnny's head slightly with his hand, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you kid.” He added, and with that Derek headed towards his house. It was raining harder now and I adjusted the hood on my head and smiled faintly at the two boys before following Derek.

“You don’t seem to be very talkative this afternoon.” Derek stated as we entered his kitchen. He grabbed a banana, peeled it, frowned at the bruises on it and threw it in the trash.

“I’m never talkative.” I replied and shrugged, “And a kid in Africa would kill to have that banana you waster.” Derek just laughed, flipped open the trash lid, took out the banana and held it in front of me.

"Want it?” He asked. I just scrunched my face and shook my head while he chuckled and threw it back in the trash.

I slowly looked down at his spiffy clean kitchen counter and could vaguely see my reflection in it. My hair was more voluminous because of the rain and my stupid make up was smudged a little around my eyes. I looked like a raccoon with blonde hair. I patted my hair down and shrugged knowing there wasn’t much I could do with it and looked up to see Derek staring at me attentively.

“What?” I asked. He snapped out of his daze and fidgeted awkwardly.

“Uh,” He began and tried to lean against the counter casually. “Want to know the surprise?” He asked. I nodded eagerly while he grinned. “You always liked surprises.” He stated, probably thinking back to my thirteenth birthday where he had thrown a mini surprise party with just me and him. I didn’t like to be around much people besides him then, so he decided it’d be a good idea to bring over “The Brave Little Toaster”, which he knew was my favorite movie and we went down to my basement and watched it. We laughed and ate popcorn the whole night while arguing about who we liked better, The Radio or Lampy.

Derek clicked his tongue, which I also realized he does a lot, and nodded his head towards the direction of his backyard, indicating that we were to go out there.

“But it’s rainingggg.” I complained and he just smiled and nodded.

“It didn’t stop the kid next door and his friend, so it’s not going to stop us.” He said nonchalantly. I just sighed and placed my hood over my head. It’s not that I don’t like the rain, I actually love it. Just getting a cold by being out in it wasn't my idea of fun. But I love the way everything looks so clear after rain, and I love the sound of the rain hitting my window. Have you ever realized that you always feel so much more creative when it’s raining? I always sketch my best drawings by sitting on my windowsill and just listening to the rain.

Derek opened his back door and I groaned while pulling on my hood to walk through it. Derek pulled on his hood also and took my hand to pull me through his backyard. I looked downward and blushed at the fact that he was holding my hand, but quickly brushed the feeling off and mentally scolded myself for thinking that way.

We continued on through his huge backyard. And I’m not just saying that, it’s seriously gigantic. His backyard leads to the back of a small forest type place that we used to go to all the time when we were younger. His yard never really had a fence; I guess the multiple trees from the forest replaced the need for one.

“I’m getting soaked.” I said while looking down at my boots which were now covered with gross, wet leaves.

“We’re almost there, whiny.” He remarked and for a second I thought he squeezed my hand harder.

He finally stopped and pointed upwards at a tree and I almost cried at the sight of our old tree house that we had both abandoned in seventh grade. We both agreed that it was "too ‘childish’ and we were ‘teenagers’ now", even though we both secretly still wanted to hang out in it. It was a cool place we used to go to just to get away. When my Dad was being ridiculous, I used to sneak out of my house and walk the half mile to Derek’s. He’d just open his door and see me standing there with tears in my eyes, and he would merely nod and lead me to this tree house. We’d eat gummy bears and marshmallows and listen to some lame middle school music on his portable CD player that we thought was oober cool at the time.

I then realized tears were slowing running down my face as all our memories were flashing through my mind, but I knew they would go unnoticed because it was raining.

“I haven’t been up there in years,” Derek stated. He then looked down at our hands and immediately let go once he realized that we were still holding them. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked over at me. “Do you want to go u-" Before he could even finish his question, I was already half up the ladder leading to the tree house.

“Just as I remembered.” I remarked while stepping in and hunching over in the small house. It was basically just a large wooden box with carpet at the bottom. It had a window at the side and a smaller than small portable television that ran on batteries on the floor. Derek had built the tree house with his Dad when we were young, and was seriously super proud of himself when it was finished.

“I know, huh.” He remarked behind me while stepping inside. “Except with more cobwebs.” I turned around and smiled warmly at him but then widened my eyes once I saw a spider slowly crawling on his shoulder.

“Um, Derek.” I said while staring at the small orangish spider.

“What?” He asked.

“There is a spider on your shoulder.” I said. Derek’s eyes widened and he started flailing his arms everywhere (which wasn't too safe because we were in such a confined area).I placed my hand over my mouth, trying to hold in my laughter, but I couldn’t help it and immediately began to laugh out loud. He looked like a little kid trying to get away from an angry bee.

“Get off. Ah! Get off!” He said while wiping his shoulders vigorously.

“It’s off!” I said loudly and Derek finally calmed down and sat down on the floor of the tree house.

“That was so not fun.” He stated and adjusted his wet hair that was matted against his forehead. I just laughed and looked towards the television.

"Pansy." I stated.

"I am no pansy." He retorted strictly but I just stuck my tongue out at him and looked towards the small TV.

“Do you think this thing still works?” I asked and leaned forward to turn it on. Nothing happened and I frowned.

“I’ve got it covered Barbie doll.” He stated and took out huge batteries from his pockets.

“Ew, I hated it when you called me that before and I still hate it when you call me it now,” I replied and scrunched my nose. “Just because I have blonde hair does not make me a Barbie.”

“Oh shush and take it as a compliment, Baylin.” Derek said while flipping over the television to place the huge batteries inside. “Let’s hope this works, this thing hasn’t been used in years.” He added and once the batteries were put in, he flipped the television over and placed it on the floor. He turned the switch on and in what seemed like slow motion, an image began to form on the screen. It was a local cartoon that was picked up by the antennas and no sound was coming from the television. “Damn.” He mumbled while staring at the fuzzy screen.

“Oh shush Derek.” I replied mockingly. “We can make our own sound.” He sat up and turned to me while lifting his eyebrows.

“And how can we do that?” He asked. I smiled and looked back towards the TV.

“Okay, I’ll be that pig right there, and you’ll be that chicken who keeps bugging him.” I stated pointing towards the cartoon. “Stop bugging me chicken!” I said in an obnoxiously deep voice and Derek almost fell down laughing, I looked down at him and frowned as he held his stomach. “What?” I asked grumpily.

“That was fucking hilarious!” He stated while calming down his fits of laughter.

“I was just trying to help.” I said embarrassingly and Derek laughed again before nudging me with his shoulder.

“You’re a very special girl, Baylin Scott." He remarked while lying down on his stomach to view the television better. I laid down by him and looked at his side profile. I have to give it to the guy, he was good looking. Heck, he was great looking. He always has been since we were little. I got kind of jealous at the fact that he could always just flash a smile at people when he got in trouble, and they would just immediately forgive him. I was never able to conjure up that capability due to my lack of social skills and my ongoing awkwardness that I still have to deal with to this day.

“I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not.” I responded and stared back at the TV. We fell silent for a moment while watching the pig and chicken walking around in what seemed like a farm. Seriously, what great mind thought of making a cartoon about a pig and a chicken? Whoever did, I’d like to meet that person and personally punch them in the face for creating such a bad excuse for a cartoon.

We continued like that for a while, just watching the cartoon in silence, when all of a sudden I heard Derek clear his throat.

“But you’re so cool, Pig. I want to be just like you!” He said in a squeaky voice, obviously trying to imitate the chicken. I looked over at him and I saw the ridges of his mouth curl up into a smile, but he continued to stare at the small television.

“Well you’re not cool.” I said while making my voice get as low as I could. “Now leave me alone so I can do some... pig stuff.” I stated. Both of our eyes met and we burst out laughing at how lame this whole thing was. After we were done, I quickly smiled and then converted my attention back to the cartoon.

We both knew then, that our friendship was back. And as much as I’d like to question why it had disappeared in the first place, I’ll refrain, because as of right now, I just need my best friend, and I think he needs me too.