His Name Was Ronan

three

The hottest day of the year happened to hit in October. Everybody in the had been watching the weather meticulously, waiting for this both loved and dreaded day. The news of a heatwave brought along news of parties; mostly outdoors of course. 

Although, through the Instagram account I had been forced to make by my beloved friends, I had seen plenty of 'sauna party' advertisements, which sounded like a day in h-e-double-hockey-sticks to me. 

School had been going smoothly; for me at least. Poor Paige had come down with a flu, that unfortunately ended with her missing a week straight of classes and falling deathly behind. 

Mr. Wilde had been gone on some sort of business for nearly a months worth of classes, which meant no more run ins with his pretty face. Pretty mean face, others would probably refer to him. My classmates were angry that his lectures were required to be attended, but he wasn't attending them himself. They thought it was unfair.

I just missed looking at him, although not having the image of him whispering in my ear certainly did help me focus more.

His warm presence had no comparison to the temperature that was cracking down on us. 

James, Jesse and I were all headed to a lake party turned bonfire when James' green Volkswagen Beetle gave up on us entirely. The dirt road that we turned into appeared to be all but abandoned. 

"James! I thought you said you got gas!" Jesse exclaimed, exasperated. It wasn't until James pointed at the fuel gauge that she realized we unfortunately, would not be getting out of this situation that easily. 

"Well, whatever, I still want to get a tan!" She declared, laying out her pink starfish beach towel on the dirt road, promptly lying down.

"Yeah, me too!" James followed.

I stood dumbly next to the dead Beetle. I was honestly quite glad we weren't making it to the lake. Swimming was something I never cared much for, especially when my mother constantly berated me for my doggy-paddle. 

"Shouldn't we call someone to, I don't know, assist us?" I suggested. 

"Lottie, babe, you're too smart right now, lay down and tan with us," James said.

"Okay," I sighed, keeping my phone with me so that I could eventually call someone.

It was after about twenty applications of sunscreen and only 30 minutes that I had enough.

"I hate to say this, but I'm awfully bored right now."

James and Jesse both sat up, taking a moment to adjust to the darkness of not having the sun in their eyes. 

"Lottie's right. I am bored. Maybe we should play a game! Like truth or dare." 

We all perked up at the idea of such a risqué game. There wasn't much to do in the middle of nowhere, meaning that we would be revealing many truths.

After countless questions concerning kisses and crushes, rather immature topics for three college students, we were successfully bored. Once again. 

Luckily for me, I had service and was able to call a tow truck. While it would have been nice to bake to a crisp, I had plenty of homework to be doing. The hooligans that started this situation would not be the ones to get us out of it, so I filled my role as the coined 'parent of the group'.

Of course this role contrasted greatly with everyone's relentless need to take care of me like a baby deer in the road. 

Back at home with my mother, she was my only friend. And if she ever heard me call her my friend, she would likely kill me. It was comforting to have such a lovely group to look after me, although it did get slightly overwhelming at times.