Eternally Eighteen *Undergoing Editing*

Walking Alone

"Ha! I beat you again!" I bragged, just to mess with Lyle.

Those icy blue orbs of his rolled back in his head as he collapsed on his back, plopping into a pile of shirts that had yet to be cleaned.

"Are you kidding me?!" Lyle complained, "In the 80 plus years you were alive, you couldn't have just done dumb things like go shopping or paint your nails? Geez, why do you have to be so good at video games? I thought you were a girl, Coop."

I lightly punched him in the arm, only slightly offended. "And I thought you weren't such a sore loser, but I guess we're both wrong."

Lyle paused, brow furrowed as he thought too hard about my joke.

"Did you just call yourself a guy?"

I rolled my eyes. "You weren't supposed to read into it, doofus. It was funny, just laugh."

"Ha. Ha." Lyle said, obviously just trying to annoy me with his overwhelming sarcasm.

I just smiled. I knew it irritated him when I acted innocent and unaffected by his attempts to roast me.

He opened his mouth, and I prepared myself for another verbal blow. However, he caught me by surprise.

"You want to pop some popcorn and watch a movie?" He asked, then stood up and stretched while yawning.

I chuckled. "I'm not sure, it looks like someone's a bit too tired to get through a whole movie."

Lyle contemplated this for a moment, checking the time. It was just past 10:00pm. "Yeah . . . so not a full movie. What about a couple episodes of The Flash?"

That got me on my feet. "Oh, heck yes."

We trotted into the kitchen together, Lyle taking the opportunity to snag a cookie while his parents weren't there. I pulled out a bag of buttered popcorn, then placed it in the microwave to cook.

While waiting for the popcorn, we tried to see who could catch the most Goldfish crackers in our mouths without any mistakes. Lyle won, and he was pretty proud about that, so I just let him soak in the cockiness and let him enjoy his minute of pride.

Finally, we were sitting back in Lyle's room with the tv on, stuffing our faces with popcorn and watching intently as Barry Allen and The Arrow fought.

I know we had agreed not to watch a movie because of how late it was, but honestly, we probably spent more time watching episode after episode than we would have if we just watched Spider-Man.

That always happens.

It was past midnight now, and I really needed to get back home. I didn't live too far away, so I wasn't worried about the walk, though Lyle always tried to make sure I was seen home safely. His parents had gone to bed hours ago, and I knew they trusted Lyle and I not to do anything stupid like go out drinking or get me pregnant. Trust me, we would never do that.

"Alright, well I should probably be getting home. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Lyle sat up and followed me as I walked to his front door. "Not so fast, Rylee. I'm not going to let you walk home alone with a killer on the lose." He flashed me a cheesy grin, but I just lightly smacked his forehead.

"You can't be everyone's hero, Lyle. Save your heroic stunts for your future wife."

Lyle's idiotic grin just widened, and I had to admit, it was contagious. "But if I am a hero, does that make you my sidekick?"