13 (evans wild ride to turning 16)

Chapter 1 (Evan)

On my 13th birthday I had the shittiest bar mitzvah ever. On my 14th birthday I made out with a girl for the first time. On my 15th birthday I broke my arm.

None of these events particularly altered my life to much, but they did all happen to land on the day I was born. There was nothing special that had ever happened in my life. Everything was a little bit bad or mediocre. I guess I could say that I was probably a little ungrateful or had a bad attitude.

Theres always been something I'd had a reason to stress over. Even if it wasn't my business or situation there was a strange pull that anxiety always held over my head. I could feel it always coming from a mile away.
—

Archie and I sat on the floor of my bedroom in front of the TV playing Super Mario Karts. Patrice was laying on my bed talking about her day. We spent pretty much every day after school like that.

"Mrs. Peterson didn't even care that I spent like, 3 hours on the poster board! I told her that it was done before the due date, I'd just forgotten to turn it in." It was hard to listen to Patrice complain sometimes. I knew it was wrong but I'd learned to tune her out over the years. She was really pretty, but she could get really hard to want to be around all the time.

I pretended that I was just to interested in Super Mario to respond to her. I wasn't, in fact I'd mastered the art of playing the Nintendo while listening and talking to her. Archie on the other hand most definitely hadn't, he was locked in and was yelling every time he bumped into a wall or I got ahead of him. He had no idea Patrice was even talking.

We finished up the round that I won and I got up and dropped onto my bed next to Patrice. She was texting someone on her phone, which she rarely did. She usually preferred to draw in her notebook she brought everywhere in her free time.

"Who are you texting?" I asked, "Do you have some other friends than us!" angling my head at her. She looked over at me then put her phone down. "Just my mom."

Patrice absolutely hated her mom. They fought constantly and tolerated each other at best. They would never casually text, unless something was wrong.

"Is everything okay?" I asked sitting up. She didn't look to upset so I figured there couldn't have been anything actually wrong. She was really easy to read for me, I just understood her immediately. Whenever she was upset or happy or mad, I knew before she even told me.

Patrice didnt say anything though, she just smiled and stood up. "I'm hungry, lets go get something to eat." Archie heard her that time and grabbed for his crutches.

"That sounds like a delightful idea!" He said as he rose to his feet. I was hungry, but I was more confused about why Patrice just blew me off.

"Evan can you drive us to Dairy Queen?" Archie asked walking out my door "That's what I really want right now." I hated Dairy Queen.

"No Archie, I hate Dairy Queen." I said aloud.

"Okay downer, let's go to McDonalds then." Patrice hated McDonalds, she thought it was disgusting. Archie knew that so I didn't know why he had suggested it.

"No Archie why in hell would we-" but Patrice cut me off saying "Thats fine, lets go." She wasn't acting like her usual self it confused me.

They both walked out of my room into the kitchen. My Mom had bought the house 3 years ago when she divorced from my dad after he cheated on her. My parents had given me the choice of going with Mom or staying in Manhattan. In the end it was Moms choice and I moved with her to Appleton, Indiana. I hated it completely for the first couple months then I started to settle in once I found Archie and Patrice.

"What can I say Evan," Archie said hauling his way to the door "no matter how much you hate McDonalds no one says no to a boy with a terminal illness."

I didnt exactly dislike Archie but he wasnt my favorite person in the entire world. He was exactly what someone would call "annoying" or "ignorant". He really made it hard to want to be around him, but in 7th grade I sealed my fate that I would forever be stuck with Archie as my "best friend".

There was a time that I had considered trying to move back in with my dad because of how screwed my life was here. Back when I moved in I tried to get in with the popular kids, it backfired on me badly. Luckily Patrice and Archie were there to be my friends. Its nice to have people there for me always.

"Yeah okay, well were not walking there then." I tell them as I sat down on a chair to put my shoes on. Only Archie really listened to me though because Patrice was back on her phone again. She was never one to hide things from either of us, there was definitely something going on with her.

"Obviously were not walking there." Archie complained "Have you seen these legs?" I rolled my eyes because I knew he was more than capable of lugging himself 2 miles to the nearest McDonalds.

"You're the one driving." He grabbed my moms car keys from the front table and threw them at me. I caught them and looked down at my hand. I'd been the first to get my permit out of the three of us. Archie obviously couldn't, and Patrice said she doesnt need to get hers when she could just get rides from other people. I was other people.

"What are you people going to do when I'm not here one day." I shook my head and started walking to the door. Patrice grabbed her shoes without putting them on and started to the garage where my moms car was parked. She was still on her phone.