When I Die [Wattys 2016]

Chapter 1: May

It all began when my girlfriend of three years dumped me, out of the blue, the fall of our senior year. Her name was May but she did it in mid-August. And, well, not exactly out of the blue, but out of the blue truck which I found her in with Daniel O'Bryan: the snowboarding champ of our school and also the lead singer of the local punk band, the Black Catz, make sure you add emphasis on the Z... without rolling your eyes. I caught Danny and May in his pick up truck on my way out to my own car... in the parking lot of our school. There would have been a confrontation if I wasn't so damn spineless. When I tell the story, I pulled Danny off of her and accosted him in the parking lot. I punched him in his nose and carried May away into the sunset. That, is, however, pretty factually incorrect. I saw them kissing in the truck, I stood there, frozen, for about a minute, and I dropped my books on my toe. I almost screamed in pain but bit my hand instead so they wouldn't hear. After that, I ran away to my car. May texted me later that evening and told me she thought it would be best if we saw other people. Really? You think so? I wanted to yell at her. I didn't. I didn't even do that. I'd confined myself to my room for days afterwards. My days went by pretty uninterrupted, until the third day when my best friends, Myra and Reid decided, like Jesus, it was time for me to Rise Again.

"Leo, get up." I was cheek down on my bed. Reid slapped the bottom of my shoe. Myra stood in the corner of the room, arms crossed, eyes almost in the back of her head.

"Leave me to die," I moaned, never being one to shy away from dramatics.

Reid threw his hands up in an act of resign. "Dude it's been three days. You can't stay in your room forever, at least come get some food."

I groaned again, "I most certainly can stay in my room forever."

I felt hands around me and before I knew it I was knocked on the ground on my back, looking up. Myra looked down at me. She looked so typical of herself, like if you looked up "Myra" in the dictionary, she would be dressed exactly the same. She was wearing a Ramones T-Shirt that she'd cut the sleeves off of. She had skinny jeans with holes in the knees, to which my dad would always say, "so... do you buy them like that?"

"Listen, I know it sucks, but you have to get out of bed. That's the only way you'll ever get over it."

I closed my eyes, wincing at the carelessness of her word choice. "Her," I sighed.

"What?" Myra crossed her arms again.

"Her, not it. You wouldn't understand. Please leave me to my misery." I sighed.

When I opened my eyes back up, she was no more than two inches from my face.

"We are going to the movies. Up. Now," she said.

She grabbed my hand and all but yanked me up off the bed. She got behind me and pushed me towards the door. Reid grabbed my jacket and draped it over my shoulders. He grabbed my hat off my desk and placed it on top of my head, carelessly. It was sitting on top of my head, just begging to fall off. I made no effort to even lift my head up. So I was being a baby. Hadn't I earned that? Can't I get a week off from being okay with things? Apparently not. Myra was running things. We walked downstairs. My mom and dad were in the kitchen playing spades. Myra coughed for their attention.

My mom looked up like Jesus himself had swooped down in some white light and turned her wine into water and back again. Her copper red curls bounced as she turned her head to see me. She had red lipstick on, as usual.

"Leo, you're up!" she patted my dad on the shoulder.

My dad turned around to see me, "Oh, uh, hey Leo, would you like to join? Good to see you up and about," he said, trying his best to appease her.