I'm Not Dead

Chapter Three

Rules for the public: cover my face as much as possible. When in going to my house, I have to go around back and you know, try not to look suspicious. Then, when in the house I have to try not use too much electricity and gas and water and all that. So I'm basically living at Theo's.

No school. Should avoid going out in public. Theo is telling the maid to quit cleaning the guest house, but in return I have to clean. "You're the reason she can't clean in here. You'll be my new maid."

After planning out every last detail we could think of, I pulled on my jacket and pulled up the hood and we went out. Theo drove, and I was nervous the whole way.

"You know where we're going, right?" I asked Theo as we walked through the main gates of the cemetery.

"No," Theo said.

"But I do," Laura said. "This way," she led us in and out of all the headstones. Then, she stopped in front of an incredibly new one. It stuck out like a sore thumb. It's mine all right.

We stood in front of it, all just staring at it.

Elliot Ren. 1999-2016

A chill ran down my spine. "This is weird."

Laura looked down at the grass. "Groundskeeper already fixed it. Think he knew what happened?"

"Oh God I hope not."

The three of us just stood there a while longer, just looking at the pristine new stone. There were some things sitting on it, things that people left for me. Cards, soaked from the rain. A few bottles of beer, a football—even though I hadn't played in a year—a box of condoms, a few pictures, and other various stuff.

"You should've seen the funeral. Half the school showed up."

"I'm popular, Laura," I said. And it's true. I moved to the school district in sophomore year, skipping the awkward freshman year and was able to establish my rank as the top ten in the class. I was a starter for the JV football team within the first game, and by the second half of the season was starting for the Varsity. Lauren, who was already with the 'in' crowd, a cheerleader, became my girlfriend. We've been together for the most part ever since. There was one period of time at the start of senior year that we fought a lot and broke up, but we got back together long before the crash.

Then I crashed.

Theo was the awkward kid who was forced to play football whose older brother played on the Varity team while he benched the C team. I chatted with him after practice in the locker room, discovered he was pretty chill, and convinced him to quit football despite what his parents would do. Then, he became the manager, and one night after a celebratory end of the season party at my house, he lost his virginity to the cheer captain. That bumped up his social status and we became the Three Musketeers of Roosevelt High.

Then I crashed.

Laura checked the time on her phone. "It's getting late. We should get back."

Theo nodded. "Lead the way."

Once it got dark, we loaded up a small cooler with some cheap beer and Laura drove to the old park were we used to hang out. We climbed up into the castle that was just as unstable as it was when it was built. We got to the very top and passed around three cans.

"Cheers." I said, and raised my can in the air. Theo and Laura did the same. We all drank for a while. Round two. Halfway through round three. Laura stopped after her first.

This is the park we used to get drunk at, all the time. Didn't always be that way, back in tenth grade when we were all just friends, instead of best friends. We used to meet up here, before any of us had our own cars.