past mistakes

Party-Free

We all walk into the house and drop our stuff on the floor. We're all exhausted. I fall onto the couch, so happy to be home. I pull out my phone and tell my mom that we got home. I feel like she would want to make sure. As I am doing that, Kendall orders us food. She's too worn out to cook anything. Also, we don't have that much food here. 

We all wait on the couches for the food. Eventually, we hear a knock and grab the food. We ate while The Good Place is playing and at some point, things started feeling normal again. Like maybe we could just be friends again. Maybe things could be like how they were at the beginning of summer before all of this. 

It's been two weeks since we got home. Things are great, honestly. Jack and I's normal bickering has returned, and I can finally say that I am good being friends. Leo and Kendall are doing well too. They still hang out almost every day. We haven't gone to any parties. I'm slowly gaining my parents' trust again. Sadly though, the summer is almost over. I still feel so unsure about schooling next year. 

My parents will come home before we decide and have a talk with me. It's weird that my only summer goal was to convince my parents that I had matured and changed and I did the exact opposite. This whole summer did not go as planned at all. Don't get me wrong, I have some amazing memories, and bad ones, but it's not what I could have ever guessed. 

Kendall and I are currently at one of our favorite strip malls because it has the best stores. We are walking out of the jewelry store when we see Mark walking with some of his friends. 

"Mark! Oh my gosh, hey!" I shout. 

He stops and says, "MC, wow, I haven't seen you in so long." We hug quickly. 

Kendall says, "Hey Mark, what's up?" 

Mark smiles, "Just out with the guys. I haven't heard from you guys in a while. What have you been up to?" 

I answer, "We went to Orlando a few weeks ago, but now we've kinda been hanging out at home."

Mark nods, while his friends awkwardly stand by waiting for us to finish talking. Mark doesn't seem to care though. "Are you and Leo still together?" he asks Kendall. Kendall nods, then Mark looks at me. "How about you? Are you and Jack-," he looks for a word. I quickly shake my head though, "No, we're not." 

Mark looks confused, "Wait, but you guys are okay, right? Cuz you're like living with him."

I nod, "Yeah, we ended on good terms." He nods then says, "Before I forget, next week is dead week at the beach houses. I know you're not like that anymore, but if you wanna come, my house is Monday." 

Kendall and I look at each other. I completely forgot about that. Dead week is usually closer to school starting, I wonder why they are doing it so early. It's basically just parties every day, so much so, where you should feel dead by the end of the week. It's definitely not something that my 'changed' self would do. "We'll have to think about it. Thank you for telling us though," I say. 

Mark nods, "No problem. Nice seeing you guys." He starts to walk away. I watch him walk away, lost in thought. I didn't even think about dead week. 

Kendall distracts my thoughts though, "He seemed different." 

"What do you mean?" I ask. 

"I don't know. He's usually more... eager, maybe. I don't know, just different."

I shrug, "So, do you want to go to dead week?" 

Kendall laughs a little, "You're joking, right?"

I furrow my brows, "Um, no."