4.6) Under a Sky So Blue

SHE LIED! HE’S HORRIBLE AT GRILLING!!! THIS IS BASICALLY RAW!!!! Julian’s brain screamed.

“... Atlas? I think something went wrong here,” Julian said, calmly smiling as he continued chewing the somehow raw steak as they stood on the rooftop of his apartment.

“What went wrong?” Atlas asked with an innocent look of curiosity.

Julian spoke again after barely managing to gulp down the food.

“I have no idea. I thought you knew. I thought… that was the whole point of you taking over the grill,” he said with an eyebrow raised. “And admittedly, I don’t know how to grill, but I’m pretty sure you completely screwed this up… somehow,” he mumbled.

“But it’s in a crispy color," Atlas retorted. "That’s what she–that’s what I thought was good?”

Mary cut in with a laugh. “You guys are both clueless. What happened was that he put it at a very high temperature, cooking the outside of the meat quickly but not giving the meat enough time to warm on the inside. So it looks grilled on the outside but is actually raw on the inside,” she explained. “But it’s not too late. Here–hand me the tongs, Atlas.”

Atlas lent the tongs to Mary, who then stepped up to the grill.

Julian sighed as he and Atlas watched helplessly as Mary began moving the meat and adjusting things on the grill. “Be honest, Atlas. You don’t know how to grill at all, do you?”

Atlas cleared his throat, and Mary spoke for him. “Must be his off day.”

“Oh haha,” Julian replied.

He walked away to the ledge of the rooftop. Then, he took a deep breath and exhaled, breathing in fresh air away from the smoke rising from the grill. The sky was nice, just like it had been a few days ago when they had all met together for the first time.

Yesterday, Mary and Atlas had met up with him to discuss the bucket list he had been making while spending time alone at his apartment room. He was surprised to see Atlas still around–it seemed that Atlas and Mary had bonded significantly over the last two days without his knowledge.

Perhaps what had made Julian more comfortable with Atlas’s presence at his apartment was that Mary found Atlas to be a really cool person, comparing him to a “MacGyver” who could do anything that was asked of him.

… But clearly he couldn’t grill despite her “absolute” confidence in him.

And, according to Mary, Atlas wasn’t actually homeless–he had just gotten drunk and had fallen asleep in the alleyway, then had gotten robbed while he was asleep. Afterwards, Atlas allegedly vowed to never drink again.

The idea that he was drunk made sense, in a way–Atlas didn’t really look homeless when he was found in the alleyway. But at the same time, Atlas didn’t look like a guy who would get dead drunk and end up alone in an alleyway.

Then again, there are quiet guys that do surprisingly weird things when drunk, so maybe he’s one of them…?

But perhaps the strangest part about it all was that Mary was the one who explained everything–Atlas would simply shrug when Julian asked him if it was true, not confirming or denying anything.

Weirdos, he thought jokingly.

Admittedly, the situation was interesting enough for him to not think too hard about it. And Julian had not seen his sister this happy in a very long time–so he decided that Atlas must be a good person. If Atlas could cheer her up as the world came to an end, Atlas was no longer a stranger–he was a friend.

He stared up at the blue sky once more. He didn’t know what had happened to them in the past few days, but he welcomed all the changes they brought to his quiet and mundane life.

Julian could hear Atlas approaching from behind. Eventually, Atlas quietly stood beside him, not saying a word and simply taking in the scenery.

Julian spoke first. “It's a nice view, isn’t it? It’s a perfect shade of blue, with no clouds to cast shadows. It’s nice and warm. Maybe even better than back then.”

“I agree.”

“Even though you’re not buck naked?” Julian added.

“... I don’t need to be ‘buck naked’ to enjoy the sky. And perhaps I’m in a slightly better mood than I had been back then,” Atlas said quietly.

“Yeah?”

Atlas nodded.

“Hm… I guess I am, too,” Julian said. “If I’m being honest, I didn’t think that I was going to actually start checking off things on my bucket list until you two came along.”

“You weren’t going to do them on your own?” Atlas asked.

“Well, like I said before–I have trouble making plans. I might have just kept pushing it off until it was too late, if you guys hadn’t come along and asked about my bucket list.”

Then Julian pondered. “I mean, playing video games alone until the end of the world might not have been too bad…?”

He shook his head, then laughed nervously. “No, never mind. That sounds… sad, knowing I could have done this instead. So thank you. For letting this happen.”

“... Hm.” Atlas crossed his arms, seemingly in deep thought.

Mary called out to them.“Julian! Atlas! It’s done cooking! Get over here!”

“Coming, coming!” Julian said, snapping out of his trance and pacing back. And when he realized that Atlas wasn’t following him, he looked back to see Atlas putting his hands on his hips and staring far, far up into the sky.

“Atlas! Come eat!” Mary called out once more.

And when Atlas turned his head back in reaction to her further beckoning, Julian caught a glimpse of his side-profile. Atlas had a soft grin on his face–one that Julian had never seen before. A smile that seemed to be silently saying, “everything is alright now.” Then, Atlas took a step back and joined them at their rooftop grill.

And thus, Julian successfully checked off the first item on his long bucket list.