The Bucket List ; LRH

3. Get Our Palms Read

I sat on my balcony rereading our bucket list. I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to do first. Most of these things include at least two people. I didn't want to cliff dive by myself or learn how to surf by myself. I wanted Caroline to be doing these things with me, but I guess I was on my own for most of them. Number nineteen sounded very appealing to me; get our palms read. I guess I could do that today, but I wasn't sure where the closest palm reading place was. I folded the list, got up from the balcony chair, and went inside to surf the internet to try to find a palm reading place. I clicked on the first link I saw, the first usually being the most reliable source.

Mistye's Palm Reading
1786 Thomas Road
Palm Readings only $15 a person
Walk-ins allowed

I stared at the screen and debated whether or not I actually wanted to do this. What's the worst that could happen? I'll get ripped off fifteen dollars? That's the least of my problems. I grabbed a pen and wrote the address down on the back of my hand before exiting the page and closing my laptop. I gathered everything I needed; my phone, keys, wallet, and purse, and turned out my bedroom light before shutting the door behind me. I raced down the stairs and was met with familiar faces. Calum, Michael, and Kevin were all standing in my kitchen. "Hey E!" Kevin said excitedly.

"Hey Kev," I waved. "Hey guys."

"Hi Erin," Calum said, Michael waved. "We just stopped by to ask if you wanted to go to the beach with us. We're gonna spend the day there until Luke and Ashton arrive. So, are you in?"

"Oh, uh, I can't actually," I frowned. "But thanks for the offer. Maybe another time?"

"Definitely!" Micheal said happily.

I said goodbye to them and ran out of the house to my Jeep Liberty. I put the keys in the ignition and put the car in drive before speeding down the street. I looked at the addresses of the buildings I passed until I found 1786 Thomas Road. After fifteen minutes of driving, I pulled into a small parking lot in front of a tiny building with a flashing sign reading Mistye's Palm Reading. It was a small, quaint place and it looked like I was the only other person parked in the parking lot, minus one other car, who I'm guessing is Mistye. I braced myself before getting out of my car and locking the doors behind me. I slowly walked to the entrance and pulled the door open, a loud dinging noise echoing throughout the whole place. "Hello!" An older woman, maybe late 50s, early 60s, greeted me with a pleasant smile on her face. She was dressed as a gypsy, if you have ever seen one before. "I'm Mistye, how may I help you today?"

"Uh, I'm just looking to get my palm read?" I said, as more of a question than anything else.

"Yes of course," She smiled and motioned for me to follow her. I followed her into a dark room, lit up by different lights hanging from the ceilings and a table full of lit candles, the wicks flickering from the fan that was running above us. "Please, have a seat," I sat down in the purple, fuzzy chair that was across from hers, on the other side of the small table in between us. "What is your name, dear?"

"Erin," I said nervously. I wasn't sure why I was nervous, I had no reason to be. All I was doing was getting my palm read. There is no harm in this. It's probably not even true half of the time. Honestly, I would rather be doing anything else but this, but this was on our bucket list, so I had to do it. I had to just get it over with.

"Lay your right hand out," I did as she said and she took it in her own hands, looking at my palm intently. She traced the lines with her long, fake nails and nodded to herself. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was just going along with it. "Okay, Erin, we'll start with your life line," The tip of her nail ran across the line and she mumbled something to herself that I couldn't quite make out. She did the same thing with my head line, heart line, and the overall lining of my palm. "Based on the overall look of the lining of your palms, fingers, and fingernails, you have the Conical Hand," Mistye told me, even though I had absolutely no idea what that meant.

"Is that good or bad?" I asked, hesitantly, scared to know the answer.

Mistye completely disregarded my question and started explaining what the lining on my palm means. "Your heart line starts between your index finger and your middle finger, meaning, it is believed you fall in love easily. The line is long, so you express your emotional and romantic feelings very easily. Your head line is a wavy line, telling me that you have a short attention span and you tend to get distracted very easily. Your life line is closer to your thumb, you tend to have low energy and like to sleep a lot. If the line breaks, which yours does, this tells me there could be a major change in lifestyle or a physical move."

I was about to ask another question, when Mistye continued with the reading. "Humans with the Conical Hand are normally the connoisseurs of the arts with superb communication skills and a love for the arc light. He or she lives live on a purely sensual level. This person is impulsive and has a short temper. The best profession for a person with the Conical Hand are those in the creative field; painters, sculptors, musicians, and poets."

"Is-is that all?" I asked, careful not to sound rude or unhappy with my results. She nodded her head and held her own palm out, continuing to rub her thumb across the rest of her fingers, signaling she wanted her fifteen bucks. I opened my wallet and pulled out a ten and a five dollar bill, slapping it in her palm, before standing up and leaving the small space. That was total horseshit. I did not benefit from one thing she told me. I fall in love easily? Bullshit. I've had four boyfriends and not once have I fallen in love with any of them. I have a short attention span and tend to get distracted easily? Well... That's not entirely false. I do have low energy and I enjoy sleeping a lot, but who doesn't? I sure as hell am not impulsive, but I tend to have a short temper. So overall, I learned that palm reading is a big ball of horseshit and I just lost fifteen bucks for some bullshit. I wish Caroline was with me, she would have called Mistye out, telling her she was a fake and a phony, but I didn't have the balls to do that. I was more angry than I should have been, so I slammed my car door shut and sped out of the parking lot, onto the main road to head back to my house.

I parked my car in the driveway and stomped up to my house, slamming the front door shut behind me. My mother, father, Lucille, Carl, Joy, and David. were standing in the kitchen, talking and laughing about something. Probably something only old people think is funny. "Hello, Erin!" Lucille smiled at me.

"Hi Lucille," I waved to her and the rest of the adults that were gathered in my kitchen. "Where's Cate and Kevin?"

"They went out to lunch. It's their almost seven year anniversary! Can you believe that?" Lucille gushed. She loved Cate and Kevin together, she claimed that they are the cutest couple she has ever seen, and it was hard to argue, because, well, they definitely were. I couldn't imagine being with the same person since my freshman year of high school. You miss out on so many things if you are with the same person all four years of high school. I guess they did everything together, so they experienced their first everything's together, which is kind of cute, but I would prefer to be single and do my own thing during high school, which is exactly what I did. The only constant thing in my life during high school was Caroline. People sometimes would mistake us as a lesbian couple, which sometimes we would tell them we were and act like it, but everyone knew we weren't since Caroline and I both had temporary boyfriends throughout high school. Our boyfriends would never last more than two months, we both agreed upon that. Unless we really, really liked the guy, which never happened, so we didn't have to worry about that.

"Calum and Michael are out at the beach! You can join them if you would like," Joy smiled kindly at me. I told them I might, but retreated to my room instead. I shut my bedroom door behind me and opened my desk drawer, pulling the bucket list out and unfolding it. I crossed off number nineteen, get our palms read, and folded it before putting it back into the drawer.

I sighed heavily and plopped down on my bed, shutting my eyes, ready for a nap even though it was barely two in the afternoon. My thoughts drifted to our bucket list. The last one on the list is what scared me the most. I didn't want to do that without Caroline. I didn't want to fall in love with anybody, but if I wanted to successfully complete the list, I had to fall in love. I sighed and closed my eyes, on thing on my mind before falling into a peaceful sleep; two things crossed off, twenty-eight more to go.