The archive of the forgotten

Apocalypse no (Well, technically in three days)

We always thought our great-great-great grandchildren would be the ones who had to deal with the imminent destruction of this earth. So when I heard a gasp out of my flatmates while boiling water for my instant noodles I thought it was about some stupid footie match.
"I don't get man and their sports" I whispered while pouring the water in the plastic cups I didn't expect to get (What should've been) the most devastating news in my life.

I walked into the room and saw the news. I frowned and tilted my head.
"You've heard it right people. The world is ending in three days. We've gone too far." The man hidden in a suit says.
"Is it the first of april?" I ask while I look at the boys while trying to eat but burning my mouth.
Grayson shook his head, hardly showing the tears in his eyes.
I dropped the noodles.
"Shite!" I screamed as the broth burned my feet and I started to tap dancing, trying to avoid the pain.
"Be serious for just one moment Louis!" Brent yelled. "Not everyone has nothing to lose." He says.
I look at him, my soul pinpointed on my chest as I tried to hide the fact he is right.

"Hey mate, it's alright. He doesn't mean it." Grayson says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
"But he does." I say as I look at him. He puts his arm around me and smiles.
"You have three days to fix that Louis," He says while walking away.
I look at Grayson, his long auburn hair is so familiar. I would be able to recognise it if it were only one strand far from home. I would understand what he had meant when he lost it. Grayson is my hawk if I hunt, he would be my typewriter if I were an author. He is my everything. My life doesn't matter if it weren't for him.

He was my peer mentor when I came to the UK. I am Irish, I remember being heavily ridiculed for my accent but Grayson was always there for me. And eventually I discovered I used the ridicule to my advantage. I became the class clown, I was constantly on the bill and about to get punished but I had the best time of my life back in boarding school and now, whilst being a bartender in the evening, I am training to be an actor. But hey, those hopes have been crushed about half a minute ago.

I light a cigarette and rush my hand through my curly hair that bounces like waves afraid to touch the shore. My green eyes dart through the room, panicking in finding things I'll miss. But I cannot find anything but Grayson. I smile, well Grayson is something right.

I go to the kitchen and put on The Smiths. I smile and dance around the kitchen while Vicar In a Tutu blasts over the speakers and I grab all the ingredients for choclate chip cookies.

Grayson enters the room as I am mixing the dough when I notice he is carrying a suitcase. I feel my stance change, I touch the silver necklace I once stole from him but he let me keep it. I'm not religious, and the only reason I wear this cross is because he didn't ask it back. It meant strangely much to me.
"What are you making?" He asks. Sitting down on one of the bar chairs we have for the cooking island.
"I was aiming for weed cookies but I realised I have already smoked all of that." I say with a chuckle. He shakes his head and laughs.
"But seriously, I want to go out relishing a good space brownie!" I smile, "It would be something right? High off something looking at the destruction of the earth.... a real once in a lifetime chance. I am looking forward to doing it with you in three days."
He looks down and sighs. I put out my cigarette out and frown.
"Hey, I know that look what is it?"
"Louis.... I am going to my parents in Switzerland. I want to die with my family..... I...."

I laugh and turn around, knocking down some glass and standing on it. It hurts like the phrase he just uttered. Brother, you are like a brother to me. He said, he used to say, and I even was disappointed in that. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted him to find me beautiful. To write the poems he has written for melody about me, I needed him to love me. And brotherly love was good enough.
But this still feels like a betrayal of my own heart.
"You can come...." He begins.
"No," I say. "I don't want to intrude, of course the apocalypse is best spent with family."
"Why don't you go back to Ireland."