15 Reasons To Live

Chapter Four

15 Reasons to Live © Copyright Brianna Howell 2013





Thad drove us back to the apartment after we'd decided that we would leave for our adventure the next day.
The more we planned this thing, the more excited I became.

"Well, can we go to New York City?" I asked as we walked in the elevator leading up to our floor. I'd never been there before even though it was relatively close to Boston. Most of my friends had gone at some point during the three years I spent there but I never had the extra money to go with them.

Thad hit the fifth button and I smiled, proud of my newly found estimating skills, remembering guessing what floor we were on this morning.
"I guess we could, it's not far from here anyways-" Thaddeus laughed at me. "What're you smiling at?" He asked sounding remotely amused.

I shook my head and decided that it wouldn't hurt to tell him. "When I woke up in your apartment I thought that I might have been kidnapped."
He laughed loudly as the elevator doors opened. "By Ben?" He asked incredulously.
"Hey" I laughed. "Why don't you try waking up in a place you've never been with him looking down at you."
Thad three is head back and laughed again. "So that's why you screamed?"
I nodded laughing with him. "Why did you think I screamed?" He shrugged opening the apartment door. "I thought that you were having a nightmare or something-" he was cut off by a frustrated groan.
Ben was laying upside down over the back of the couch facing us, holding a paper in his hands. He yelled again, tearing the paper to pieces.

Thad cleared his throat. "Ben" he said slowly. "What're you doing?"

Ben looked up at us, still upside down, and his cheeks flushed as he straightened back up standing behind the couch. He scratched the back of his neck.

"Hey guys" he said in a high voice, he cleared his throat and spoke again in his regular voice. "What's going on?"

Thad walked over and picked up the pieces of paper Ben had torn.
Ben tried to snatch them back as Thad read them. He laughed hard, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as Ben yelled at him.
I wasn't sure what I should do so I just stood there watching them.

"You got Patricia?" Thad asked between laughs. Ben looked over at me annoyed, and threw his head back groaning again.
"You got Patty Helbig to be your Marilyn? That's great man, I'm really proud of you." He teased. Ben punched his arm.

I set my things down on the kitchen counter, walking back over to the living room where they were.
Thad laughed again and them looked up at me. "Sorry Abby, it's just than Ben has this-" Ben cut him off "Let me tell her!" He said holding his finger up to Thad's face behind him, which Thad slapped away.

He cleared his throat dramatically.

"I'm an actor" he said, and Thad snorted. Ben shot a glare at him before continuing.
"But lately I've been writing and directing short films."
I nodded trying to keep my attention on him and not on Thad's struggle not to laugh.
"This one in particular I've been working on perfecting for months. When I was satisfied with the plot and the script I went out to find my cast."

Thad broke out a laugh and Ben quickly told him to "shut up" before proceeding.
"This film, by the way, has Marilyn Monroe as the main actress along with other famous people from the 1960's and they're all abducted by aliens-"

I scrunched my nose and Ben shook his head. "It's a lot better than it sounds. And anyways I had the perfect girl to play Marilyn. She was beautiful, and read her lines perfectly, and she actually wanted to do it!" He said exasperatedly. I looked at Thad and he winked at me conspicuously, I laughed looking back at Ben.

"But her grandma died and she had to go to the funeral! Her grandma!" Ben stomped his foot angrily causing the coffee table to shake.
Thad shook his head kind of disappointed "Ben, she can't control when her grandma dies."
I chuckled at the two of them. Thad was like a wise older brother to Ben, and in the back of my mind I figured that's as how he was with me too.

"I know that!" He yelled. "I just wish that someone could have planned the funeral a little better. Maybe like a week or two, just until we could finish filming. And- and in the sad parts, she would actually have a reason to cry. It's a win win situation really."
Thad shook his head again. "You're an idiot." He said.

"So where does Patty come in?" I asked, and Thad laughed again, all efforts to restrain himself gone.
Ben kind of laughed too, but pitifully, and scratched the back of his neck.
"She's this two-hundred pound girl who's had a crush on me since grade school."
I 'awwed' and laughed a little too. "Don't be silly Ben, she's at least one-fifty. And she's in love with you!"
Ben groaned pulling on his hair that already stuck out oddly. "I can't do it guys. Do you know who plays Clark Gable? I do. Do you know who Clark Gable kisses out of happiness and relief after finally returning to earth?"
I looked at Thad quickly attempting to hide my smile, he snorted trying not to laugh. "Me!" Ben said falling back on the couch behind him. "I, Ben Davis, have to kiss fatty Patty Helbig or lose a whole letter grade on my Cinema class."

An idea struck me. We should take Ben with us! "Hey Thad, can I talk to you for a second?" I said, nodding my head towards the hallway.
He nodded and got up from the couch following after me.

"Who's Thad?" Ben yelled from the couch. We could at least think about taking him with us.

I turned to speak but looked up into Thaddeus's gray eyes. My breath caught it my throat and I looked away quickly. "Remember that road trip thing we were talking about?" I asked.
Thad nodded, his eyes locking into mine again, I looked down at my hands. "We should take Ben with us." I said quietly so that he wouldn't overhear us.
Thad's eyes widened and he shook his head quickly. "No way" he said "No, no, do you know how crazy that guy is?"
I sighed. "Seriously Abby, he's funny but he doesn't know when to stop. So many things could go wrong."