Mindless

Chapter 13- Dopamine Overload

~At this point, he is so close to me. It feels as if I have completely frozen up. This, right here, feels way more intense than any of the recent moments we have shared together~

Three days have gone by since I have been staying with Stan. He has been really great to me to say the least. We have been talking a lot, at dinner, when we both get home from work, and before we go to sleep at night. Most of our conversations consist of memories from all the stupid but incredible stuff we did. As kids, we were pretty adventurous. Stan and I have been getting a lot of laughs out of the eventful childhoods we shared. We shared so many memories together, probably more than most friends do. If it was not Stan, me, Eric, and Kenny, it was just me and Stan. The two of us liked to hang out by ourselves once in a while, by once in awhile I mean more than a lot. Our friendship was strong and very special to me, from what I can tell it was very special to Stan as well.

Without each other, things in life would be dull. There would often be times where we stopped talking for a little bit. Those weeks of no communication were always hard and frustrating. Talking to him was part of my daily routine, so switching that up would always feel peculiar and unordinary. It was always a stupid argument that got stretched out too far. I remember a few times where gallons of my frustration would come pouring out of me unfiltered; my frustration being from bottling up my true feelings towards my best friend. It felt wrong and terrifying to tell him the truth. I was in the mindset that if I lost him forever, I knew I would not ever be the same again. Stan was my rock, he used to tell me I was his. I did not want anything to change that. So, here we are years later back in each other's lives, lots to catch up on and lots of patching up to do on my part.

It is now going on five o'clock. I have just sat down at the table to look over the lecture notes for tomorrow's classes. Professor Stanner and I have everybody on just about the same track, so we are able to get a new topic started tomorrow with all the students. The job has been going better than I expected. The trust Professor Stanner has for me is very appreciated. Another good thing is, the two of us get along and work together so well. When we go over lesson plans, we always compromise and she lets me add things on to what she already has planned. The sound of a key in the front door's deadbolt floats through my ears. Stan walks through the door, looking more exhausted than usual. He begins to remove his work boots and sets them down on the shoe rack.

"Hi," I greet looking up from my notes.

"Hey, sorry I'm later than usual," He apologizes, removing his coat and hat.

"No need to apologize, how was your day?" I ask him.

"Long, they needed me there a couple hours earlier than I was scheduled to be, guess the head manager had an emergency so I had to fill in the shift," Stan explains, walking into the kitchen.

"What time did you go in?" When I woke up this morning, he had already left.

"Five," He replies after several gulps from a water bottle.

"Jesus, Stan."

"The paycheck will be worth it I guess. I just got a raise so I'm not gonna bitch about long hours."

"Good thing you can see a positive side to it," I tell him, looking back down at my notes.

"Yeah. How was your day?" He asks me.

"Not too bad. We have all the classes on pretty much the same page so we're not all over the place with topics," I explain.

"That's good, bet it's pretty cool to help run the class," He knows school has always been my strong suit.

"Of course," I like taking things into my own hands, steering the class down my own lane of educational direction.

Stan runs his hands over his face and takes a deep breath, "Do you mind if we get something easy for dinner?"