How To Love A Dead Boy

Chapter 24 | Rewind The Tape, Make It Better (For Him)

REWIND THE TAPE, MAKE IT BETTER (FOR HIM)

"SNAP!" 

Ryden and I both sit on an end of my bed, cross legged playing card games. It's only ten in the morning and we've already had five rounds of both 21 and UNO. Being forced to stay home the whole day is like a curse; I need to be outside.

Hanging around in the house all day means little activity, which thereby leads to me battling with my own thoughts: Replaying past events and imagining where my life might be if I had done something different. In basic terms; being imprisoned within four walls causes me to go insane. 

But I guess this time would be different. After all, I hadn't had a friend around me 24/7 back then. 

I pull my handkerchief from out of my sleeve and turn away as I blow my nose. Turning back to Ryden, I stuff the hanky back up the sleeve of my sweatshirt and he scrunches up his nose. I roll my eyes at him and tell him to take his turn in placing down his card. 

"SNAP!" he exclaims. He reaches forward and collects the pile of cards, wiping the playing area clean.

It had taken some serious planning to figure out how to "activate" his playing cards. In the end, he had told me to lick one of the cards to see if it worked. At first I had deemed it disgusting, and that I would never be that desperate to play cards. But, somehow, by some force of God knows what, I was convinced. It was gross, and lucky he wasn't really there, because I was all germy. He, like any normal person, picked up the card I had licked, and a smile grew wide on his face. 

I had strictly told him that I would only lick so many cards, but still, I licked all 52 of these cards, and all the UNO cards had a little damp spot on the corners as well. At least it was creative, I'd convinced myself. 

"You must be cheating. I don't even have time to think and you've already called 'snap'!" I whine. I look from the emptiness beside me, to the high pile of cards next to Ryden. 

"It's not my fault you’re slow," he replies like a smartass. I frown.

"Excuse me?" I ask him. His smug look disappears and suddenly he's tripping over himself, waving his arms around like a maniac. 

"I... I didn't mean like slow, slow, just... slow-er than me... because... you're sick and maybe you got... your... slowness... from the stuff on the playing cards when you licked them?" 

"Smooth," I say, relaxing. Ryden smiles, holding back a laugh. 

"Thanks. That's how I get all the ladies," he replies.

His answer is stupid, but for some reason, I can't contain my giddiness and suddenly burst out into laughter. Ryden lets his out and the next thing I know, we're both rolling on my bed, laughing so hard tears are forming in our eyes. My vision is becoming all blurry form the water in my eyes, and the more I think about the situation, the more rolls of laughter escape my mouth. 

Somewhere in my silliness I roll off of the bed and I hear Ryden burst into even more laughter. Between my insane howling, I let out a snort and watch as Ryden makes a thump on the floor as he joins me. 

Suddenly the bedroom door bursts open, and I suddenly sit up to see Johanna standing in the doorway. Just by her very presence, the mood in the room plummets into a dark hole and the smiles on our faces are wiped, clean, off our faces. She looks at me like I'm a maniac; and I look at her as if she is equally nuts. 

"What are you doing?" she half asks; half demands from me.

"I was in bed. But then I was reaching for something and I fell. And then I thought it was funny. So I laughed," I tell her, not meeting her eyes.