The Beginning, Middle, but not the End

Day 5,907 (December 19th)

  The winter breeze makes Zelda shivers in her long gray trench coat. Her pale, petite nose turns a light shade of red. Her hair short bleached hair is covered with a white hat, which probably barely keeps her scalp warm in this cold of weather. We currently sit a foot away from each other on a bench outside of the school as we talk.

  "Have you talked to Dallas lately?" Her teeth chatter quietly. The last time I talked to him must've been two days ago at most. I remember he helped me with an assignment in French.

  "Not in the past twenty-four hours, but yeah," I shrug.

  "Clearly, we have two different definitions of lately. Why don't you guys talk more? You guys have been friends for nine years, that's over half of your life," She questions. That's true, as of today it'd be two thousand, nine hundred, and fifty-seven days that we have been friends. I don't say this aloud though, she may find it weird. I remember when I first started keeping track of days, whether they were to measure friendships, school years, or countdowns. My therapist tells me that bit is normal only to an extent. Apparently, not everyone tracks how many days they've been alive like I do, which is 5,907. It's weird thinking that Dallas has been a part of about half of my life span.

  I respond, "Exactly. I've always talked to him whenever for the past nine years. We talk when we talk, and that doesn't mean every day." Zelda rolls her eyes at my bluntness and shrugs. After an awkward moment of silence she speaks up again, her voice almost sounding as if to prove some sort of point. "Well he's writing a new song for the Daily Dazers."

  The Daily Dazers. I remember the day Dallas and his band formed, he came over to my house after school that day and told me their plan. A couple of his buddies in their gym class wanted to start an alt-indie band, which after a year of procrastination they finally did it. They practice in Dallas' garage most days, sometimes only for twenty or thirty minutes, other days for hours on end. He's the bassist and songwriter for the band, but sometimes vocals too.

  I nod to Zelda, "That's cool. Maybe I'll talk to him tonight." I have to do some homework tonight but maybe afterwards I can shoot him a text.

  "You should," She grins at me almost suspiciously. Then again, she always acts like this when whatever we're discussing involves Dallas and I.

  I heard you've got something new in the works? ​Send. My phone begins to buzz violently and displays a picture of me and Dallas from a Halloween we shared when we were younger. He's dressed up as Spider-Man while I'm pouting in my little Dorothy costume. I slide the little green button to the right.

  "I'm guessing Zelda told you?" Dallas speaks excitedly, then plops onto a bed or a couch from the sounds of him throwing his body onto some cushioned surface.

  "Yep, what's it about? You gotta tell me!" I roll onto my stomach on my bed and examine the collage of photos hanging on my wall across from me. Photos of mainly my friends and I are scattered like puzzle pieces, all showing parts of my life in the wrong order, but highlighting my best moments. A few photos even feature Callie, my longest lasting bond. I continue to scan the photos more closely as I wait for Dallas to tell me about his new music.

  His last song was about grieving a loved one, but how it's okay to move on from stuff like that. His music is far from bad. As the songwriter, he gets the most power over what the band plays, but they all have to agree on a topic and everything. That was the first song everyone liked the first demo of, so they decided to keep rolling with it and record it to upload, which they did.

  Dallas chuckles, "I don't want it to get out, it's a surprise."

  "Does Zelda know?" I feel my heart begin to sink into the empty abyss in my body.

  He releases a sigh, "Yeah. I'm sorry, you're gonna love it though. It's about the future. I promise." I try to stop my mind before it gets ahead of itself but I struggle. Why would he tell Zelda, who we've only known for the past two years when she moved here, but not me? I'm his best friend. I mean, I think I am. Isn't that how this works though? If you're close friends with someone for more than five years, doesn't that deem you official best friends? My heart is starting to race. I'm overthinking this. Just breathe, Jodie.

  "That's cool," I fake a smile. Even though he isn't here with me in my room to see it, I hold it. Perhaps if I keep it up long enough, I'll start to be happy. He's probably at his house, a road away from mine. I wonder what he's doing, is he writing this mystery song?

  He sighs into the phone, "Thank you. As soon as it's all finished, and we've got the music, we'll do a private concert just for you to show you the song." A small laugh escapes me, but I quickly try to suppress it. This is a force of habit, I don't particularly know why though.

  Dallas laughs into the phone too, "There it is." What is he talking about, did he find something? Before I get a chance to ask him what he was referring to, Dad interrupts me by knocking on the door and poking his head into the room.

  "Hey sweet pea, dinner's done. Oh, who's on the phone?" Dad and I don't really look much alike, and I remember that each time I see him. He has orange hair and bright green eyes, the only similarity I see between us are our freckles. I have light, almost honey brown hair and very dark brown eyes. The only similarities physically between us is our nose, paleness and freckles. I got most of my mother's physical traits. Whenever he would take me to parent-teacher conferences while I was in elementary, the teachers would ask if he was maybe a distant uncle or cousin that I lived with. It was odd considering he is my dad, and we were at a conference for parents to attend.

  I hold the phone away from my ear for a second, "It's Dal."

  Dad smiles anytime I say Dallas' name, I don't know why. "Tell him Neil says 'Greetings Earthling', and then come on down. Mom made her special potato soup recipe."

  After he shuts the door I go back to my phone call, "Did you hear that?"

  Dallas chuckles, "Every word. I can't believe that's still an ongoing joke. It started like seven years ago!" I smile again. When we were nine, we built rocket ships out of cardboard and launched them to Mars. Dallas and I were the aliens and my dad was an astronaut. Dallas climbed into the tower of our old playground and yelled, "GREETINGS EARTHLINGS!!" He had a lisp at the time, and we couldn't help but bust out laughing. Dad has dragged the memory on for years, but it doesn't feel old to me.

  "Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. Anyways, I'm gonna go. Bye, Dal! I'll talk to you later."

  "Au revoir, Jo-Jo," Dallas laughs one last time. I pull away the phone but hear him exclaim, "Wait! Jodie!"

  "Huh?"

  "I almost forgot to tell you this, I've been wanting to for a while now. Well, I'm just gonna cut to it. Are you ready?" I interject a sound, agreeing to hear the rest of what he wanted to say. "I wanted to tell you that in a few months the band and I want to go on a trip!" My heart sinks, but he continues, "Would you wanna come?"

  I shrug to myself. Where would they go? How long would they be gone? What about school? What if something happens, and we're stuck somewhere without any help? The more thoughts that come to me cloud my mind, causing my heart to beat louder than a bongo. Nausea begins to overwhelm my insides. What if I don't go and something happens to him and I don't know? What if I turn this down and I regret it for the rest of my life?

  Hang on, what am I doing? I need to stop. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, slowly massaging my temples. "I don't know." I pull the phone away one last time, but this time I do hang up.

Hey there! I know, I only just started publishing chapters to my book and I'm already behind. I've been dealing with some medical issues that have recently arisen, but I have finally had a minute to sit up and post this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for this Friday (03/26/2021)! 

Chapters are posted on Fridays, 7PM CST.

I'd also love to hear your feedback so please, feel free to comment, vote, or whatever you wish to do! Again, thank you so much!

~ Dominica Louise