Why You Shouldn't Die

Reason 1

Nature

Mark snatched all the ingredients from the kitchen to make his lunch and ran to the living room. He squirted on mustard and mayo, put a huge piece of lettuce on top, added on one too many tomatoes, used very fattening meat, and put a very sour pickle with a jalapeño on the side. Beside him was a blue glass full of Fanta that was still fizzing from when he shook the bottle too much.

He shoved the sandwich in his mouth and put on his socks while chewing. After the next bite, he realized he put them on in reverse and had to switch them. At the last bite of his sandwich he looked at the glowing green clock next to the cable- 7:42- he was going to be late.

While he spat out some chunks of chewed meat, since he was eating with his mouth open, he tied his orange and white converse in a double-knot. "Ma! I'm going!" No response. "Ugh!" Mark rushed to the kitchen once more, grabbed a post-it and pen, and wrote a note to his ma.

Ma, I'm leaving
now. Didn't want
to wake you up nor
be late. See you
later. Mark <3

Mark rushed out of the house while wiping his mouth and turned left to Bayling Street. "Please don't leave yet. Please." He prayed while running and tried to go faster. The only problem was ever so often, his bag would weigh him down.

"Made it," he sighed in relief. Mark walked up the stairs in a giddy way and rang the doorbell of 657 Bayling Street. "I-I made it," he heaved under his breath.

As the wooden door opened, Mark straightened his posture and wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Oh, hi Mark." She was beautiful with hazel eyes and reddish hair that flowed in curls right below her shoulders. She was petite and had a 92.58 average in school (it was good enough). The perfect girl- at least for Mark.

"Hey Willow. I'm ready."

"What's in the bag?"

"Some pencils, paper, my phone, a red blanket, a basket, food, water bottles, and my camera. Can you guess what my first reason is?"

"Picnics?" She tilted her head in confusion as if trying to put two and two together.

"Nope! Well, kinda. You're close. Let's just go! I'll show you!"

She looked at his forehead and he got worried, "Is there still sweat or something," he wondered and started to feel his body heat up. His face was going to turn red in 5 seconds max.

"You look tired. And sweaty. You can stay in the AC'd living room until you rest up. I'm fine with it."

"She noticed," he thought," I must seem weak if I'm already tired." Mark looked behind Willow and saw the thermostat, 64'F. "Um, if you want to stay, sure, but I'm actually fine thank you."

"Oh okay. Let's go," she turned around, shut the door, and locked it with a rusted key that she slipped into her pocket.

--------------

As they hiked up the trail, Mark occasionally looked at Willow-who was looking at the scenery below them. He could tell she was soaking it up yet it just wasn't enough to convince her.

"So um. Are we almost there," she asked in between pants. "You know, to the top."

"Well, according to my map and compass, we have to take around 800 steps more Southeast. But if you're tired, we'll take a break in a few."

"Oh no, it's okay. I just didn't expect it to be so long."

"Yea, but isn't it exhilarating? Just makes you wanna stay alive, doesn't it?" He hoped she was hooked enough with the first reason.

"Sure," she chuckled as if life was a joke to her. She didn't realize she had the good life unlike others out there who would take it all in exchange for their kidneys or something. "The trees are all bloomed with flowers, the river is flowing, the wind is breezy but that can happen anywhere at anytime."

"Not when you're dead," Mark snapped in an almost annoyed tone. His urge to get on her good side took over as he remembered he had to convince her not to want to commit suicide.

"I see your point," she laughed again. Why was life such a joke to her? He didn't get her at times and she probably thought the same with everyone else who loved to live.

--------------

Once the sun was near setting time, 7:24 that day, they reached the top of the hiking trail. "Here," Mark patted down the red blanket and started to set out the food and drinks he brought. "I have watermelon, apples, some chicken wings, there spicy though, and some mint to help with our breath afterwards."

"You didn't have to bring all this Mark," she exclaimed as she examined Mark pulling out the nearly empty water bottles.

"I didn't have to but I did," he joked. The two sat down criss-cross apple sauce style and started to dig into the food. "It's funny because I actually forget we were going to eat here so I ate a sandwich at home," Mark lisped since he had some watermelon chunks stuck in his teeth.

Willow spat some food out into a napkin so she could quickly reply," You don't have to eat then. I'm not forcing you," her smile stretched far across her rosy pink cheeks. "But this is yummy food. You'll be missing out."

"Now this is a good time," Mark said as he gulped down the chunks he pulled out of his teeth with his tongue. Sure it might seem disgusting, but it was his teeth, not his grandmas dentures or something.

After they finished eating, Mark and Willow took pictures together with the GoPro camera Mark brought, making funny poses that others would find weird. They stuck their tongues out, blinked on purpose, pretended to be flying next to surrounding mountains, and later tried taking some serious ones as life tokens (Mark hoped that they would be long used life tokens for Willow).

"Okay, hotshot. That's one reason that convinced me. Let's start packing up."

They cleaned up after themselves and started to hike back down the trail. Mark slowly whispered with a grin on his face while Willow was looking at the scenery one last time," One down. Four to go."