Today I Am Alive

I think I fell asleep around 3 a.m that night. I woke up at 9:30 to my phone playing Therapy by All Time Low.

“Silver dude, it’s almost time for third period, where the hell are you?”

“Shit. Shit. Shit!! I over slept. I’ll be there in like a half hour. Thanks for calling Allie!”

I hung up, and went straight to the bathroom, and jumped in the shower. It was only like a 10 minute shower, but it felt like the longest shower of my life. I threw on a flannel, a pair of cut off jeans, and my cowgirl boots, grabbed my book bag, and ran out of the door. To my surprise, Ryan was sitting on my car.

“Saw your car as I was headed to the mall, so I knew you weren’t at school.” He gave me one of his I’m-excited-to-see-you-smirks, so I knew he was up to something.

“Yeah, smartass. I’m obviously not at school.”

“Well do you want to hang? I have some activities planned for today that would be much more fun if you tagged along.”

See, Ryan graduated last spring. He wanted to wait to go to college until I could go with him, so he deferred for a year. I don’t think either of us could’ve stood to be apart for more than a week at that time.

As I walked over to give Ryan a hug, I told him I would hang as long as he did one favor for me.

“Nothing crazy, right?”

“No, no. I just need for you to call the school, pretend to be my mom, and tell them I’m sick.”

“Got it,” he said while pulling his phone out of his pocket.

I walked over to his car and jumped into the passenger seat. Ryan definitely had one of the best cars in our town: a mustang convertible. As he slid into the driver’s seat, I barely heard him telling our guidance counselor to have a nice day and that I should feel better tomorrow.

When we pulled up to the parking lot, I still didn’t know what we were doing at that mall. I took the keys out of the ignition and turned toward Ryan.

“So, Mr. why did you need me to come to the mall with you today?”

“Well see I got fired-”

“You what?!”

“I got fired yesterday because instead of going to work, I went to your house to see if you wanted to hang out.”

“Whoah! You can’t put that on me, dude.”

“I’m not, Sassy,” he smirked. “but since you’re already here, you can help me out.”

“Well since I’m already here…” I replied playfully.

“Okay good. I was hoping you’d help… The only problem is that we might get in trouble for this.”

He popped the trunk. As I was walking around to the back of the car, I noticed that Ryan was stuffing water balloons into two backpacks. He handed me one, then we both headed off into the mall.

Ryan worked, before he was fired, at this pretzel stand. There was a balcony on the floor above the stand and if you looked over, you could see everything inside of it. Rhys and I went to that exact spot. We both looked at each other and I said, “on the count of three.”

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three!” we exclaimed in unison.

A second later, water balloons came billowing over the railing and into the stand. The workers were all soaked and the food all ruined. Ryan and I ran as fast as we could out of the mall and to his car. When we got there, I couldn’t remember where I put the keys. We saw the security guards running out of the mall, so we needed to think of a plan, quick.

I heard Ryan yell my name and I noticed he was already half way to the bus stop. I ran after him and got on the city bus as soon as I could. The guards weren’t far behind, but we did get away.

As the bus reared the corner of our neighborhood, I let out a huge breath that I hadn’t realized I was holding in. Ryan and I didn’t talk the whole way home. He just sat on the bus grinning to himself, from ear to ear.

We both stepped off of the bus and Ryan picked me up and gave me a huge hug.

“Thank you so much for helping me out, Silver. I had such a great day.”

“Ryan, you do realize it’s only 4 pm, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“…so there are still 8 hours left for today. The fun doesn’t have to stop now.”

“Well what do you wanna do?”

It was my turn to smirk at him. “Harry Potter marathon!”

“Fine. But no wearing your Hufflepuff robe this time…. And no wand, either!”

“But, but, but-”

“No buts,” he cut me off. “As a matter of fact, we’re not eve stopping by your house.”

“That’s kidnapping.”

“It’s right across the street. I’m sure your parents will know where you are.”

When we got to his house, his mother was sitting alone in the kitchen, on the phone. She put her finger up to her mouth as if to say “shh.” Ryan went to the cupboard to get popcorn, while I looked in the fridge for a bottle of water. He pointed to the cupboard and mouthed, “want anything?” I shook my head and we both went to the basement, which just so happened to be his room.

“Soooo which movie do you want to start with?”

“Honestly, I’m tired so let’s just watch the last 3.”

“The last 3? Really?”

“Yes…?”

“You’re going to fall asleep during the first 30 minutes of whichever movie we decide to watch.”

“Okay, so then let’s pick a different movie and save the marathon for next weekend.”

“Deal.”

We both began shuffling though his vast movie collection. As the pile started to dwindle down, I began yawning. Ryan thought it was a good idea to pick the next movie he came upon.

As he put The Hangover in the DVD player, I realized that he had already planned to watch that movie all along. I didn’t complain though, because it was a funny movie. We sat down on his couch. Him on one end, I on the other. Me with my feet across his lap, and the bowl of popcorn sitting on my legs. I remember that’s how I fell asleep, because I was scared of the bowl of popcorn being on me. As if the butter was going to seep through the bowl and into my skin.