The Bucket List

Chapter 5

Right when I was about to continue my intense acting I hear a tap at my window. I knew what that meant. It was Carter. He climbed up on my roof once again to sneak into my bedroom. A little annoyed at his impeccable timing, I was reluctant to let him in. But when I opened the window he stayed in place.

"Are you busy?" He asked showing a toothy grin.

"Yes, why?"

"Doing what?" He asked sarcastically? "Writing stories again?"

"No," I said too embarrassed to correct him.

"The swim team is going out tonight and they said bring a hot date so I thought who better to bring than you?" I scoffed.

"Why didn't you ask Angel?" I asked. If he wanted a real date he should have asked her.

"Because I wanted to hang out with you," he said stepping inside. "Go into your giant closet and put on something cute." He pushed me inside and shut the door not giving me a chance to object. I stood there for a moment feeling defeated. On one hand I didn't like going out. I'm what some would call an introvert. But on the other hand, I was so bored I was having to entertain myself. I threw on some cute jeans and a crop top. When I opened the door he squinted. "You don't usually wear cute clothes I wasn't even aware you had any."

"You are the one who said to dress cute!" I said flustered and getting a little defensive. He put up his hands in protest and we snuck out of my room climbing our way onto the roof. My parents don't usually let me go out this late on a school night and I didn't want to deal with asking. It was just easier this way.

We hopped down onto the ground landing directly in from of the living room window as always. And as always my parents were sitting there watching old movies. But they didn't happen to see us. We snuck past and started walking to his car. He had parked a block away so my parents wouldn't know he was here.

"A Perfect senior year here we come," Carter said rubbing his hands together maniacally as if that would some how add effect.

"Let's just get this over with," I said already regretting this decision.

"You know Ave, we have only so many chances to make this the best year of our lives. We are going to look back at this year when we're forty and overweight and remember all the tunes we had fun. But if we don't go out, we won't be making any memories that will last us a lifetime."

"Don't get all philosophical on me Car, the whole idea that we need to make memories only stems from the fact ours life spans are too short. The only way to make true memories would be to make every moment worth while. Not forcing yourself to hang out with douchebags."

"Okay okay." He held his hands up in protest. "You win. You know best. Like always. You'll just have to suffer through a few beers and before you know it the night will be over."

"Beer?!" I yelled, suddenly aggrieved. "So we're not going to just be hanging out with douchebags but drunk douchebags?!"

"Relax no one is getting drunk. This isn't some party. We're just hanging out," he said trying to calm me down. By the time I had decided I wanted him to turn back we had pulled into the bowling alley parking lot. Too late now. "Do you want me to take you home?" He asked looking at me sincerely. He would too. And he wouldn't complain either. He really was a good friend.

"No it's okay. I can stomach hanging out with those losers for a bit if you want me to," I reassured him. He gave me a sexy smirk and winked.

"That's what I love about you." We headed inside the alley and we're immediately greeted by the tacky black lighting and 1970's glow in the dark arcade carpeting. I didn't mind it though. I actually liked coming here. I had lots of good memories coming here with Carter over the years. We actually first became good friends at this place. We were seven and it was his birthday party. He had invited me because no one else would be friends with me and after everyone called me Avery the Evil witch at school he felt sorry for me.

We were sitting at the party area over in the far corner and I was sitting away from the rest of the kids. Carter had come up to me and gave me a big hug and included me in the conversation. "Avery brought the cupcakes!" I could hear him say to everyone excitedly. His warm smile made everyone else smile too. He had that special charm even when he was a kid, I guess he was just born with it.

"Avery?" Carter's voice said bringing me out of my walk down memory lane rather abruptly. I turned around to see the whole swim team and their girlfriends watching me stare blankly at the empty party area. I hadn't even noticed I was lost that deeply in thought. "Come sit," he said motioning for me to come over to the table completely ignoring my moment of translucency. Thankfully so.

"Hey Carter, when are you going to give Avery your jacket?" One of the faceless jocks asked. There were three guys and three girls total, each girl wearing their boyfriends letter jacket. An act I found to be a miserable excuse for an attempt at a performance of romance. Carter remained silent, unsure of what to say.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to be cliche?" I said coming to his defense.

"Cliche? It's about showing the rest of the school who she belongs to," one of them remarked.

"I guess I missed the memo where ownership was a sign of love. I didn't realize that was back in fashion," I said eyeing his twitching lips turn downwards into a slight frown.

"We said bring a hot girl. Not a depressing one," the same guy said to Carter.

"She's not depressing, your pea brain just can't keep up with her," Carter retorted. "Where's these beers I heard about?" He said changing the subject. He didn't particularly enjoy conflict. A quality I've had to learn to admire.