The Bucket List

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Al, wait up!" Charlotte yelled after me, as I was about to leave work. "We're all going over to The Red Lion in about 20 minutes. Would you like to join us?" She asked stopping in front of me as she was putting her jacket on.

"I'm sorry but I can't. I promised I would spend the weekend with my sister, starting today." I told her and saw how her face fell. She removed her hands from her blond hair, which she had just put up in a ponytail, and her otherwise always smiling face was suddenly serious.

"Oh that sounds like a good weekend. How's she doing?" She asked giving me that pitying look I hated more than anything. I knew people didn't mean any harm with it. But it always made me feel uncomfortable and a little mad that people treated her differently.

"She's fine thanks." I told her giving her a tight smile before I exited the building and headed in the direction of the nearest grocery shop. I pulled my phone out, plopped my earphones in and let myself get lost in the song 'deep sleep' by Nabiha. It had been a long day, and it was going to be a long weekend with my parents, so I needed a few minutes to just shut my brain off.

As soon as I turned the next corner I saw Julie standing in front of Tesco waiting for me. She spotted me not many seconds after and her face lit up in a smile as she waved at me. "Hi Julie." I greeted her, as I was pulled into a hug.

"So what do you need to buy?" She asked me as we entered the shop. She had texted me earlier asking if I wanted to come by and have dinner with her tonight. When I told her I couldn't she suggested that we met up after work instead, as we worked right next to each other, and here we were.

"Oh just a few things for our movie night tonight. Now stop with the small talk and tell me about the date you had yesterday." I told her as I grabbed some frozen berries.

"I'd rather not. I just want to forget all about it." She whined as we walked over to find some chicken.

"That bad huh? I thought you said you had a good feeling about this one. Or was that just an excuse you used, so I would come shopping with you last Tuesday?" I asked, eyeing her suspiciously as she found some chicken breast.

"Can't I use the truth to bribe you to go shopping with me?" She asked trying to look serious. "No. I did have a good feeling about him, he was good looking and just finished university. He took me to a nice restaurant; we have to go there at some point by the way, but by the time we ordered our food all the small talk I could think about was used up and I just couldn't get a conversation started. Seriously, I could just as well have tried to have a conversation with a goat, I'm sure it would have been way more fun." Julie explained rolling her eyes. "So no, I'm still 100% single, but I got an amazing meal out of it! He was sweet enough. I just guess we didn't really have anything in common at all." She said shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm sorry. But at least it could have been worse; Remember that Paul guy you went out with a few months back? God he sounded horrible. Where do you meet all these guys anyway? You never fail to amaze me." I asked shaking my head slightly with a smile on my lips.

"Hey you make it sound like I don't do anything else than go on dates." She said pouting. "And don't answer that." She said cutting me off before I could even get a word over my lips. "But I don't know. I met Tom at Beth's house-warming. How those two ever became friends I'll never get. Garret stopped me on the street and started talking to me and we ended up on a date. And Jack who was before Garret was a blind date. I don't know, I just meet them I guess."

"Well someday one of these guys has to have something that can get your attention." I said trying to cheer her up. We were almost finished and I didn't want to leave her in a bad mood.