The Cascading Waves of Caden Lee

29

SCARLETT PARKER

When I wake up in the trunk of a Jeep, my mind automatically thinks two things. One, We hadn't driven home as we had previously planned last night. Two, I had deliriously kissed Caden Lee on the cheek last night.

It sounds really stupid aloud to be stressing about something as mundane about that. Truth be told, my mind screams at me to think of all the other more depressing aspects of my life. Like the fact that my dead brother is gone and I have the gall to be happy without him, or that my mom is off fucking some rich dude to distract herself from the burden of me and her past mistakes.

But, startlingly enough, I don't. And I instead begin to internally scream at my high-self from last night. The deeper I think about it, the more a full-body cringe settles deep into my bones.

And then I remember what I said. And it makes me want to hit myself over the head repeatedly with the nearest heavyweight object repeatedly.

But before I can act on that action, the sound of a phone ringing startles me out of my thoughts.

I look around but realize no one is awake. I reach into my pockets and fish out my phone, but theres no Caller ID on the screen nor is it vibrating in my hands, so I strain my ears in a feeble attempt of locating the sound.

With dread settling into my stomach, I realize the ringing is coming from the man of my very own embarrassment. Looking to my right, I see that he's curled into himself in a fetal position on the trunk floor. A pillow is beneath his head and a lightweight quilt covering his body. I suddenly find myself thanking the gods that we were smart enough to bring pillows and blankets yesterday, or else I would've woken up with back pain like no other.

It seems like an invasion of privacy to check his phone, so I just unlock mine and start going through the messages sent by my friends the night before. I had tried to text them back, but the screen was swirling in miscellaneous patterns so aggressively that I couldn't unlock my password no matter how hard I tried.

The ringing stops, but then starts again only moments later; shrill and starting to bring a heavy throb to my skull.

So I suck it up, reach into his pocket with shaky fingers, and grab his phone so I can see if its some sort of emergency. But as my fingers latch onto it, I notice a particular crinkling feeling stuffed into the bottom of the pocket.

Not knowing i'll regret this moment only months later, I latch onto the plastic too and bring both items out of his pocket and into my lap.

Not yet bothering to see what's inside the plastic bag, I see his screen flashing with his mom's contact. Nerves immediately bloom like flowers within my entire being, but this is the third time she's called, and Caden doesn't seem to be waking up soon, so I slide right and accept the call.

"Hello?" I stutter out through the speaker, and I hear a woman's voice frantically say, "Who is this?!"

"Uhm, hi, this is Cade's friend, Scarlett. He's asleep and you kept calling, so..." I trail off, not sure what to say.

It's silent for a moment, then, "Oh, well. Caden said he would be back by midnight, and he never came home last night, is there a reason for this?"

Pausing, I try to think of the most plausible lie I can tell without saying that we were all disoriented and hallucinating all night before passing out in the trunk.

"Im so sorry, Mrs. Lee! We were watching the movie last night, then we, uhm, we fell asleep. It was so late, and I don't even remembering us doing it!" Im rambling trying to cover up for him, but I continue to talk anyways, "please don't be mad at him for this. We were too tired to drive back, I can wake him up for you if you want and he can come back home?"