bucket list//dnf

chapter 3 - a promise

"george~" a voice sang from outside his door. george grunted. he was laying face-down on his bed. his hair was messed-up and his shirt was wrinkled.

"i have a vanilla candle~" the voice called. george shot up, looked at his nearly burnt-out vanilla candle among his collection of candles, and sighed.

"door's been unlocked the entire time."

the doorknob clicked. the door croaked. nick walked in holding a three-wicked vanilla candle. his hair was also messed up, the light-brown strands sticking up in weird places. george fought the urge to smooth both his and nick's hair down as nick set the candle on his nightstand.

"i know how much you like massive fucking candles," nick chirped. george laughed.

"holy shit, that is massive," george looked at the candle with slight awe written in his face. he wasn't lying.

"that's what she said," nick snorted. george giggled.

george opened his eyes. he was laying in bed - really, he was more lying on his bed, a folded piece of paper in his left hand. his right was tangled in his messy hair, pulling the brown locks away from his forehead. he had just gotten back home from the armstrong's house and was waiting for his sister to get her stuff together so they could go visit nick. his mother was cutting lavender for nick in the backyard, and george's father had to go to a quick work meeting. it would only be george, his sister, his mother, and mr. and mrs. armstrong there.

the brunette sighed. he tugged himself up and out of bed and opened the paper for the tenth time. nick's summer bucket list stared back up at him. george frowned slightly. nick never got to do any of those things- george would've remembered at least hearing about them, if nick didn't make him go. some of them even specified "with gogy", the nickname nick had given george when they were younger and had stuck around so much that even his sister started calling him it. he felt bad that nick hadn't been able to experience what he wanted. he wanted a summer of fun, a summer of adventures and excitement and laughter. but he died before he could have that.

george wished there was a way to let nick experience the summer he wanted.

he looked up at the framed picture on his white dresser. it was him and nick, laughing. nick's arm was thrown over george's shoulder and george looked like he was trying to push it off in the photo. the george that wasn't in the photo smiled sadly and walked towards the dresser. he picked up the frame and looked at it. he wasn't studying it, wasn't looking at every detail, like he color of the grass they were standing in or the shapes of the fluffy clouds in the blue sky. he just looked.

and then, an idea popped up in his mind.

what if he did let nick experience his fun summer?

george looked down at the list. it wasn't too crazy. he could do it if he had enough time and probably money, too. but how could nick have fun, too? he was dead, george had already accepted that, so there was no just saying "he's here". 

george looked back down at the photo in thought before raising his head as another idea hit him. george could carry around a photo of nick! it wouldn't be the same as dragging his best friend along to do the things, but he could still be able to see his best friend as they go to a farmers market or watch the sun set and rise. it was a weird and sad solution and one that would require him to cut nick out of a photo and find a convenient way to store him, but it could work.

but there was one issue. one item he wasn't so sure he could do without nick being alive and by his side.

how the hell was he going to make a new friend?