Rooftop

11.

         I wake up the next morning to the sensation of being carried and bright lights, but I decide that I don't feel like seeing what's going on until I hear the ocean next to me.

"Brad, are you sure she won't kill us for this?"

"Yes Ren. Just make sure to start running away after we drop her in, because she'll probably be mad at us for a while. But don't worry. We'll be fine." What's going on? I open my eyes up just slightly and see that Brad has a hold of my legs, and Ren is holding onto my arms, and that they're carrying me across the beach. Why? I close my eyes again and continue listening to their conversations.

"Make sure that we're pretty far out, so that she doesn't hit her head on anything."

"How hasn't she woken up yet? She sleeps like a rock. By the way, after we drop her in, we should buy her some ice cream, so that she isn't too mad."

"That might be a good idea, but Columbia is probably the most passive person I have ever met. She won't be mad at us for more than a few minutes. Then she'll completely forget that we ever did anything to her. Especially if we buy her ice cream." I'm just now starting to piece together what they're going to do to me, but by the time that I do, they've already dropped me into the ocean, and started running away, laughing. I get up and chase after them, until we finally reach Rainbow, and I'm completely soaked.

"I'm going to kill you two!"

"We will buy you any flavor of ice cream you want," Brad tells me, looking a little bit more frightened than I think he should be, especially when you consider that they are both at least a head taller than me. Ren seems to be almost hiding behind him in fear, which makes me pretty decently proud of myself. And I decide to take advantage of their fear, and order five scoops of ice cream.

"Okay, could I have a large waffle cone with one scoop of rocky road, one scoop of vanilla, one scoop of chocolate, one scoop of salted caramel, and one scoop of sweet cream." The teenage girl in the mint green dress that seems to be their uniform scoops it all up and puts it into the cone, and hands it to me. Brad and Ren subtly do a game of Rock- Paper- Scissors, which Ren loses and Brad tells him to pay. Ren pulls out a twenty dollar bill, and hands it to the lady, who takes it and gives him back his change. I smile sickeningly sweetly at them, and we walk out the door together to the Bean.

Ren orders eight cups of coffee, probably all for himself, and Brad gets four for us to share. We sit down at the normal table and Ren downs a cup of coffee within the first few seconds we were there. And then he downs another. And another. And then in almost no time he's done with all eight cups. He seems to notice my confusion and opens his mouth to explain.

"I didn't sleep at all last night." I nod, understanding and he goes back up to order another three cups of coffee, before I've even finished up my first. I tell Brad to go and grab me a donut, wanting to take full advantage of the fear and guilt they had brought upon themselves by being complete dumbasses. He comes back with a napkin, and a purple frosted donut, with rainbow sprinkles, and it honestly looks too good to eat. So, I take another couple of licks off of my ice cream cone, and then take a bite of it. Brad tries to reach over to grab a piece of my donut, but I slap his hand away before he can take any. I eventually finish up my donut, at around the same time as Brad finishes up his coffees, so we all go out, and sit at a bench on the sidewalk, so I can attempt to finish up my ice cream, which I'm starting to think, won't be happening anytime soon.

"Are you still mad at us Columbia?" Ren asks me. He's been acting scared of me the entire time we've been out here.

"No. I was at first, but it turned out pretty great for me in the end." Even though they practically gave me a heart attack in the morning, and my clothes are still pretty damp, the good and the bad all seemed to have canceled out by now. Eventually, I decide that I'm too full to finish the ice cream, and throw the remaining one and a half scoops into the trash, despite the fact that I honestly hate to waste it. We start walking back home, and the rocks under my bare feet are starting to hurt a little bit. It's not a searing, intolerable pain, it's the type of pain that starts out small but then gradually gets larger and larger until it's worse than the searing pain, but you don't notice that much of a difference because it happened so slowly. And that's the worst kind of pain, because you barely realize that you hurt, because you've been in pain for so long.