Daydream Believer

cxvii. up in the air and the treehouse

cxvii. up in the air and the treehouse

Justin and I were in the treehouse yet again. He brought his guitar up there again, which was really fun. Justin improved a lot, so he sounded amazing. Then again, I shouldn’t have expected anything else from Justin.

 

“Hey McKenna,” he said as he climbed into the treehouse.

 

“Hi Justin,” I said. “What’s up?”

 

“Not much,” I said.

 

“I heard you went to prom with Aaron,” Justin said. “Are you two dating now?”

 

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship. We’ve been friends since kindergarten.” That was certainly true. It would be kind of awkward if we started dating.

 

“It’s up to you,” Justin said. I shrugged. I didn’t really want to talk about this. It was just too complicated. “By the way, I joined a new band.”

 

“Really?” I asked. Considering his previous experience, I didn’t think Justin would want to join another band.

 

Justin nodded. “We don’t have a name yet, but it’s really fun. It’s not like the Flaming Zombie Heads at all.”

 

“What kind of music do you guys play?” I asked. Hopefully it was something that Justin actually enjoyed. All I wanted was for him to be happy.

 

“Indie rock mostly. My cousin’s best friend is the lead singer and he invited me to play.”

 

“That’s really cool,” I said. “I’ll have to see you guys play sometime. Do you even know what happened to the Flaming Zombie Heads?”

 

“I think they broke up a few years ago,” Justin said. “I’m not really sure.”

 

“Okay,” I said. I could always Google it later. Justin kept playing his guitar. It still looked a bit goofy, but it sounded better than ever. I guess that proves that you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

 

“Want to play a game or something?” I asked Justin.

 

“Sure,” he said.

 

“Chess?” I asked, and Justin nodded. I found a chessboard and took it out, and we started playing. Of course, Justin won. I was never very good at chess, and I made a few bad mistakes at the beginning. He was just so much smarter than I was. I wished that I could be as smart as him, but I never could.

 

“Good game,” I said.

 

“Thanks,” Justin said. He looked out the window. The sun was beginning to set and night was starting to creep over the neighborhood. “I should probably go,” he said. He started to climb down the tree and I waved as he left.

 

I looked out the window again. The setting sun was simply beautiful with its explosion of colors. I just wanted to stay up here forever. I grabbed a book and started reading. Maybe now I could have my peace. I could climb down later. Dad and Shonali wouldn’t mind if I didn’t come down right away.

I glanced at the sunset, which was now fading to black. There were some things that were just gorgeous, and this was one of them. I smiled and went back to my book.