Give Me Stars

2. Leave Me Behind

TWO

HIM

David disengaged the wrench from the tightened bolt. Satisfied, he gave the wheel a good push, testing its spin. Just for good measure, he tightened the bolt as much as he could once more so that this time it wouldn't loosen up so quick. When it passed his heavy scrutiny, he grabbed the bike from its mid section and placed it down on its wheels onto the ground.

White. Or maybe green. He would decide later, all he knew for sure though was that he would spray paint it tomorrow.

Pushing the bike against the garage wall, he washed up, first scrubbing his hands and then cleansing all the grease smeared on his face, in the garage sink before drying up with a towel and setting it across the banister to dry. Despite the task, his mind was somewhere else.

All morning he had been racking his brain for some kind of solution, but each time coming to a quick blank. Clearly he was running out of time. Quickly throwing all the tools back into the tool box, he placed them back on the second shelf at the back of the garage, in between the stacked flower pots and the bucket full of gardening tools.

The phone began ringing just as David walked back into the house, heading for a quick shower. It was already half past ten, and he had to be out the door in about an hour -that is if he didn't want to be late.

Swearing in his head at the calls poor timing, he went in that direction anyways. Running up the stairs in two's, he found his phone vibrating and ringing by the edge of the kitchen island. He dived in to grab the phone just in time as it was about to free fall to the ground. Without bothering to check the caller ID, he accepted the call.

"Pronto, David speaki-," he began, just as the other end bellowed, "David!"

"Oh, its you," sighing lightly, David slide the phone into the crook of his shoulder, holding it up to his ear. "I've gotta leave soon, but what is it?"

"David, this is a serious emergency!" screeched the other line again.

"Wait, what kind of emergency? Is everything okay?" he panicked for a second, as he grasped the edge of the kitchen island for some sort of support.

"Gelato, that's what's up! I'm literally dying here," Venna sounded almost exasperated, as if the world was really ending.

"What? I'm confused, you lost me at gelato. Do you need me to come over? Venna, what the hell!" he rushed the last part, slightly annoyed but still on edge.

"Ice cream, that's the problem! There appears to be NONE here!"

Now David was really annoyed. Had Venna really called him up because she had no ice cream? He knew what was coming next, but he was too tired to argue with her.

"Well, what do you want me to exactly do about it?"

"Get me some, of course! Please David, my cravings could literally kill me right now and there is no triple chocolate cheesecake ice cream anywhere here to save me from certain death."

"Stop being so dramatic, I'm sure it's not that bad," just as the words slipped from his mouth, he regretted them immediately. Oh how Venna was going to have his head now.

"Oh. It's not so bad, is it? Not so BAD? Why don't you just put yourself in my shoes for a seco-,"

"Okay, I'm sorry! Really, I am. I'm just stressed out and running on a tight schedule, okay?" David just wanted this conversation to end. Normally he would have went along with Venna's antics but 1. He had places to be and things to do and 2. He would be seeing her tomorrow anyways.