For eternity, and forevermore

Good Mooooorning Milsbury! It’s currently nine am. As you head out to work I hope you’re all having a great morning because today is the grand opening of Choco Moco! Blared the newscaster from the television in the living room.

“Agh, such a cliche setting,” I thought to myself as I scratched my head and exited my bedroom, still clad in some barbaric bedhead.

“Morning Hun! Did you brush your teeth already?” Mom asked while darting from corner to corner of the kitchen, my tired eyes trying to follow along but to no avail.

“No...I’m about to go but I just came to check if you were still here.” My eyes now catching up to the pattern of her movements as the words slipped from my lips.

“Oh ok. Well, breakfast is ready, I’m going to head out to work now. So if you leave make sure to text me and lock up the joint.” The words were being expelled faster than my waking brain could comprehend. So I used the basic instinct that all humans have when they can’t seem to follow a conversation and just nodded with a blank expression.

“Hmm...Mhmm…Mhm. Ok.” I replied, hoping I didn’t agree to some time-consuming task.

“Good.” She nodded back to me as she packed her lunch and thermos into a lunch bag and jogged from behind the kitchen island towards the corridor that led to the front door, on her way stopping beside me to place a smoldering kiss with lip gloss on my cheek--very uncomfortable by the way--then she headed to the front door and slipped her bare foot into some black flats then out the front door she headed.

“Bye!!!!” I heard her shout faintly from the other side of the wooden door.

I raised my hand and waived in response. “She can totally see that,” I said to myself as I headed back to my room and got prepared for the day.

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“Ahh, nothing beats an early shower and the house all to myself,” I said as I dried my hair, the curls slowly bouncing with each pat.

“Don’t forget your umbrellas if you guys are heading out...” I heard the announcer say all the way from the living room--weak walls. Loathing myself for leaving that god-awful announcer on.

“Besides that…did she (mom) take one? Maybe I should ask her....oh wait, she’s driving so she should be fine.” I said to myself as I threw on some black plaid shorts and a white t-shirt then made my way out of my room and to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, I find a plate of food neatly placed in the kitchen island center, almost foreboding, the steam of the hot food embracing the plastic lid covering. 

“Mmmmm eggs bacon and--scratches the surface of a waffle--crispy waffles….wooooo I’m excited” I shouted as I finished reading off the items on the plate. I ran to the fridge and dragged out the orange juice then grabbed a cup, quickly walking over to the table—starting to hear a faint wheeze—and placed the cup and bottle of juice down. 

I repeated the same with the plate of food. Once this process was done I went and grabbed the remote to the TV and switched it to YouTube “Sayonara sucker! It’s honestly amazing what televisions can do nowadays.” I heard myself say while putting on my favorite let’s play channel. I was currently getting psyched up for the new Pokémon Ivory game coming out and wanted to see as much content on it to decide if I would actually get it or not. “Ahh, there we go,” I said to myself as I took my seat at the table, watched along, and devoured my meal.

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After wrapping up with breakfast, and lazily watching YouTube at the table I let the cold air of the AC sweep through my body. Making my eyelids a bit heavier and my body limp.

*yawn* 

I looked down at my phone which was cupped in my hands and read the digital time plastered on the screen. 

12:00 PM, It read.

“Hmm, what’s this?” I unlocked the phone and headed to the messaging app. At the very top of all the other messages resided Arianas’. The whole conversation from last night came back to me in just a split second, like a violent river rushing downstream.

[ Ari: Mooooooooooornin’ make sure you don't forget to drop by the park for the keys at 4!!! ((:D))]

I stared at the message for a bit before letting out an exasperated sigh.

“I actually have to step out of the house…..and make a thirty-five-minute trip--for me fifty--all the way there and back. What's worse is that I shouldn’t really bother mom again to pick me up.” I murmured to myself, gathered my strength, and picked up the plates taking them to the kitchen sink then heading back to my room where I grabbed a pair of socks and some comfortable white sneakers.

This time I made sure to choose the sneakers that were fitted with a sort of cushion under the soles. Perfect for today. I thought.

I reached for my phone in my pocket and checked the time. 12:03 PM, it read. 

“Four hours…hmm, I could probably just scroll through my Twitter or just go and sit at the park waiting.” Too creepy, exclaimed my conscience. 

“Yeah…definitely. Maybe I could find something about her idol life on Twitter? What was her name again?” As I tried to think about what the newscaster lady from yesterday had called her I went and laid on the bed. Hmm, maybe this will help me think. The softness of the bed with the cold current that swept through the house, topped off with the lost world of thoughts I was exploring left me defenseless against the might of sleep. Instead of thinking deeply, I began fighting the urge to let my eyelids collapse, it took seconds for me to give in, and then I was sound asleep, the television in the living room now going into sleep mode as well from input deficit.

Into the world of dreams, I slipped.

Heeeeey! A voice exclaimed from behind the drizzle of light. In the small hole that resided above me from where the light drizzled, I looked up to the screaming voice. “That voice….familiar,” I said to myself with a hoarse throat and heavy tongue. Each movement I made from my crouched position was heavier than the last as I tried to stand and reach for the light above.

A hand descended from behind the hole, allowing for the hole to gape and extend and distort, further and further, it stretched. Collapsing the darkness of my void into the fluttering light. Beckoning me.

I looked up and tried to see behind the light but all I could see were blinding bands of light, it was as if the very sun had been peeking into my world and shifting into a human.

“But that voice…”

I was now extending my whole body towards the arm coming towards me, its warmth permeating and gentle, soothing all the pain and aches that shackled my every movement. Slowly but surely I inched closer now, within centimeters of their fingertips. My fingers trying their hardest to reach that loving warmth. My face beginning to distort, and cold sweat beading across my forehead.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHH” I howled into the darkness of the world and pushed my feet off of the nothingness below.

Our fingers interlaced one another and then the arm began to pull me towards the warmth of the light, the sun lulling me in. Drawing closer I could hear beautiful hums. They sounded otherworldly and unique.

My arm crossed to the light first and just as my face was going to plaster itself against the light the world mushed and twisted and twisted until my eyes actually opened.

I was thrust from the world of dreams and back into the world commanded by laws of nature. I awoke heaving and disoriented.

“What…th” I rubbed my eyes as I sat up on my bed puzzled from my dreams not wanting to let any detail slip through the billions of neurons and get lost into the large abyss of the mind. 

That voice. I thought to myself as the sound of my phone ringing settled in.

*RING RING RING*

It blared just as annoying as the pretentious newscaster on the television.

Ughhhh, it's probably mom again asking if I ate breakfast. I leaned over to where my phone lay and checked the face of it.

Incoming call: Ari

My eyes shot to the top of the screen where the digital time read 4:20 PM.

I answered the call and brought the phone to my ear. “H-hello,” I said while still trying to catch my breath.

“Hey Theo, I’ve been trying to contact you, are you ok?” The words slipped from her lips clearly and calmly.

“Yeah…I was just napping and forgot to set an alarm…sorry I’ll be over there as quickly as I can.”

“Oh…well I’m here already. You don’t have to come today if you can’t make it.” She replied

“No no, it’s fine. I’ll run at supersonic speeds!”

She chuckled “well alright I’ll be waiting at the same spot by the entrance.”

“Ok...see you there,” I said a bit hesitantly thinking she would have hung up mid-sentence.

“Mhm, bye!” She said again with a hint of excitement lingering in her tone.

I hung up the call and jumped off of my bed grabbed my socks and sneakers quickly slipped into them and headed out of the front door. Five steps out of the door and I had realized. “No keys….no locking the house…..” Dammit, I should have asked mom to leave her keys. I said while pulling out my phone and heading back inside. On my phone, I checked mom's messages, and to my surprise, there had been a new notification.

[Momma <3:Hey Theo, I forgot to tell you that I left a spare key on your dresser since you said you would be heading out. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3]

Again with the emojis! I thought as I ran back quickly into the house, grabbed the spare key on the dresser, and headed out.

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After my grueling and sweaty odyssey, I finally arrived at the park. As soon as I entered from the same direction as before, the sun was high in the sky and there were probably two or three people scattered about. 

The sun's rays beat against me making me feel as though I was melting like an ice sculpture. Each second turning my pale skin red and flaky and my shirt wetter.

“One...more...step” I murmured like a madman while looking around for a spot to sit with some shade. I located a greenish bench just a few feet away from me on my right side. I began my trudge towards it.

In the distance, I could hear someone yelling out, the words echoing through the quaint park seemed to sound out my name but all I could focus and think of was the bench. The bench at that moment was my dream, my life, my goal, and my tunnel vision. Extreme focus...ignoring everything and any sound.

Th-there I sighed as I made it to the bench and took my seat. Heaving and sweating profusely. sediment could be heard stirring under my feet, but also a rhythmic crunch emerged in the background, slowly it crept its way toward me until it claimed the foreground.

First I saw the pale and curvy legs which then gave into black short-skirt-clad thighs, then a white button-downed torso and before I could see a face, a small delicate hand was wiping the sweat from my forehead, somehow the hand was wet and cool. My vision focused in and the hand was removed.

“Hey there, pretty hot isn’t it Theo?” she said with that pristine voice while wiping her sweat with what seemed to be a wet rag.

I instantly recognized that soothingly beautiful voice and chuckled off my shyness and red cheeks.

“Y-yeah but it’s…*heave*... nothing” I replied, still heaving but starting to forcefully control my breaths.

“Oh yeah of course not. You totally weren’t just hyperventilating and sweating like a madman.” She chuckled and took a seat beside me, our arms brushing against each other.

I would totally enjoy this more if it wasn’t this hot. Can’t make her feel weird though. Wait wait, did we just share a wet rag!!!! WE TOTALLY DID. CALM DOWN YOU DAMN VIRGIN. An internal conflict arose within me.

“Oh yeah here you go” she brought out my keys and held them in front of me.

“Oh yeah, thanks.” I grabbed them making sure not to touch her hand with my sweaty disgusting palm drenched in sweat.

“Hey Ariana, did you hear about that new Ice cream shop that just opened up called Choco Moco? If you'd like we could stop by there and grab some ice cream, as my treat!” When I asked I felt as though I was screaming it out just like that annoying newscaster from this morning, forcing me to feel slightly awkward, not to forget I was also asking her to go with me somewhere.

“Oooo totally. This heat has been killing me, it was especially horrible in class.” She stretched her arms as she spoke and then quickly shot up onto her feet.

“Ya ready?” She asked while holding out her arm.

“Mhm, I’m fine, I think I can walk for now. I’ll make sure to rely on you if I faint.” We chuckled as I stood up and pulled out my phone, putting Choco Moco into the map applications search box. Once set, I nodded towards Ariana and we made our way out of the park and to the ice cream shop.

We talked about her day at school as we walked and also reminisced on the odd start to our first ever text message conversation.

All the while I couldn’t believe that I was talking to such a beauty. I also started to realize something that I would come to solidify later on; whenever I was around Ariana I lost track of the world and our predetermined dispositions in it. All that mattered to me in each of our encounters was her.

Every time I made her laugh or smile it made me smile or laugh on and on and on. This entranced me and I don’t know if it was the delusion caused by the heat or the bubbling of feelings I’d never known before, but the words slipped from my mouth as we laughed.

“Hahahaa, hey Ariana. I don’t know why I want to say this and I know we literally just met yesterday but, It’s been really fun hanging out with you. I literally wouldn’t mind doing this every day.” As I heard the words escape from me and waft in the air then slowly creep into her ears I felt awkward and thought. Idiot, she only texted you because of your keys and she’s only here with you BECAUSE OF YOUR KEYS!

“Oh!” she blushed and instantly lowered her gaze to her feet, trying her best to hide her face.

“Th-then let this be our first date of many I suppose” she spoke quickly but softly not wanting anyone else to hear her. It also sounded like a failed attempt at teasing me.

I looked over to her perfectly shaped face and graceful hazel hair that rested against her shoulder, every now and then being thrust about by the wind.

Her smile. It was pure and full of joy--even if momentary. Her clear and delicate voice uttering the words "date" towards me made my knees slightly buckle. It was almost surreal.

As almost anyone would, I thought that she had been complimented and told her presence was enjoyed and also had a fair share of boyfriends, not because she seemed like the type but because she was an international sensation! One would think she’s had a couple of boyfriends with her fame and beauty. 

Thinking of this made me feel small and replaceable. Jealous.

But seeing that smile aimed towards me, bright and beautiful, showing the pearly white of her teeth and the deep rose in her cheeks. It made me realize.

I wanted to be the one to always make her smile. Not some hotshot. Me.

I want to preserve that smile for her even after I’m gone. I want her to look back and think of how much she laughed and smiled with me, even if she finds someone else who makes her smile after my near-end has arrived.

For eternity, and forevermore. I want to remember that smile.