The Brightness of Day

In 2004, Theo Ellis once stayed over at our house while his parents were out of town. Him and Milo ran up and down the stairs, shooting water guns at each other. They even ambushed me when I came home from dance class and sprayed water all down my front. I screamed at them and Theo laughed and said, "Cheer up, Izzie! It's only water!"

Somehow, it made me feel better. A lot better than when Milo said, "Suck it up, turd."

Theo later brought me a cookie when Milo was asleep.

I knew him to be cheerful and kind. He always had a smile on his face, even when there was nothing to smile about. He was that person when you needed him to be.

This Theo, however, was very different.

"What the hell, Theo? You gave me a heart attack!" I yelled, my heart still racing.

"And you busted my ear drum," he winced, tugging on his ear.

"God, what're you doing here?" I asked, looking around, wondering how a six foot tall man could squish into the backseat of a Toyota Camry without me noticing it. "Have you been sleeping in here or something?"

"Something like that," he muttered. He swung his legs towards the passenger seat and crawled into it, not before moving aside my McDonald's bag. He peered inside and stole a fry.

The more I thought about it, the amount of food wrappers and the blanket made sense now. But I still didn't understand what he was doing in there in the first place. Last I remembered, he was staying with Milo.

I reiterated this very thought to him. He shrugged and said, "I was but things change. Where are we going?"

"What does that mean, that things change? I was over literally last week and you two were lounging on the couch, watching Netflix."

Theo shrugged again and ran his fingers through his curly black hair.

"So, where are we going?" was all he said.

I exhaled, annoyed that he was avoiding my question. "I'm going to Los Angeles. I don't suppose you'd want to go on this cross-country road trip with me."

"Why're you going all the way there?" he asked, surprised.

I exhaled, not wanting to get into this.

"Because I don't have anything waiting for me here."

Theo gave me a look. "You don't know that."

"Yes, I do," I said, promptly. "And I'm sure it's illegal or something to park on the side of a ramp so I'm just gonna drive back and drop you off at Milo's--" I started, ready to change gears from park to drive.

"No," he said, sternly. "I'll come with."

"What?"

"Yeah, I mean, I don't have anywhere else to go. My clothes are all here too," he peered in the backseat, "so why not?"

I stared. This was weird, this wasn't Theo. He would never just leave everything behind.

"Theo, I know things have been hard for you lately, but you don't have to do this," I said, softly.

"You're doing it."

"Yeah, because I don't have a job right now or a relationship or anything. You have both."

He snorted. "Yeah, well, I have PTO days saved up and what relationship?" He gave me a look.

"I thought you were working it out," I said, the image of Theo's wife (or, well, ex-wife) appearing in my mind. She had a forced smile on her face, the look she gave me every time we saw each other, but that was probably because she didn't like me.

Theo exhaled and after a moment said, "So, Los Angeles? What's over there?"

I rolled my eyes. "One of my best friends. Do you remember Maeve? We went to high school together..."

"Oh, yeah," he nodded. "She wanted to be a singer or an actress, right?"

"Actress, yeah."

"Cool. Let's get a move on then," he gestured towards the busy highway.

"Are you sure?" I was still weary. I at least had a couple hours to think about my decision, from the time I woke up this morning to now. Theo only had a few minutes.

"What have I got to lose?" He flashed me a smile.

He had his mind made up, so I was convinced. I sighed and Theo grinned at me.

"Let's get a move on, Clemens!" he tapped on the dashboard.

I sighed again, switching gears into drive and finally merging onto the highway. This was going to be an interesting journey.