If The World Ends Tomorrow | ONGOING

𝓉𝑒𝓃

𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝚓𝚞𝚗𝚎 𝟷𝟺𝚝𝚑

"Giselle," Eden greets when he opens the door he looks surprised.

He shouldn't be.

"Hi, Stranger." I place my hand over my eyes even though the sun is behind me.

I feel bad for him, I can feel the scalding heat on the back of my arms and thighs, and he's getting straight in his eyes.

"Hi," he echoes. "You're...here."

Why does he sound so confused?

"Well, I did promise you the best summer ever, did I not?" I pull out a rolled-up piece of paper from the front pocket of my overalls, and also a wrapped piece of gum. "Want it?" I offer to him, hoping he says no.

He does, thank goodness.

"Suit yourself." I pop the piece of gum into my mouth, it's peppermint.

Ew.

"Anyways, as i was saying, the best summer ever.." I point to him, then me. "You. Me." I point to me, then him. "Me. You."

"I'm sure my grandmother wasn't being serious, you don't have to-

"You said the same thing yesterday and I might be high half the time but I vividly remember telling you I wanted to." I lift up the edge of the faded sun sticker.

I peeled it off an old school project.

Priorities.

"I want to," I repeat, handing the paper to him. "And Mrs. Huxley never says something she doesn't mean."

He frowns, looking it over. "It's a piece of paper."

"No, duh." I roll my eyes. "It's not just a paper." I take the paper back from him. "It's a bucket list. What else?"

I look at the paper admiring my midnight work, two pieces of notebook paper ripped out of the back of my old school book, taped together with clear tape I drew stars on. It also had meticulously placed stickers all over it, and then, of course, the words "Giselle and Stranger's Bucket List" printed in my best handwriting with my collection of gel pens.

"She's a masterpiece isn't she?"

"She's long," he states.

"Well, there are 100 things on it to check off."

"100."

I roll my eyes. "Don't look so frightened. This list will be responsible for the most fun you've had in years, I promise. And you can't say no, I stayed up all night making this list. Be happy, I was just going to show you around, but then I remembered our conversation."

"Conversation?"

"Yes." I look at him like he's stupid. "About the world ending, don't you remember?"

He nods.

"Well, it got me thinking, what if the world does end at the end of the year? It just goes boom and we all die...hopefully quickly...anyways that then got me thinking what if it ends tomorrow. I mean, the world could end any day really, you could be hit by a car today for all you know." I take a breath.

Maybe I should stop smoking so much.

Never mind that.

"So really there's no time to waste on stupid boring things, life's too short for boring, Stranger, and what's the point of life if you don't like...live it, what's the point of just sitting around waiting for life to get better, why don't we just say fuck it, and do what we want, like there's no tomorrow." I take a breath. "So I made a list." I hold up the bucket list again. "Don't mind the handwriting."