365 Days

April 15th 2016

April 15th 2016...

Of all the entries I could be 25 minutes late to write, it's this one. Of course.

One year ago today, I was laying on the floor of the Aarons house in Jess and May Belle's room, talking to the hamster in its cage. What a day.

April 15th 2016 was marvelous.

I made it through a Friday of school. Short classes, excitement for the weekend, and mostly that night.

Jess's dad had a baseball thing in Forest Lawn, the iffy part of Roanoke I guess you could say, and he invited me along to make it more bearable. So along with May Belle, Joyce, Brenda and Ellie, I joined him that night.

When I got there, Jess and May Belle had just got back from dropping off cookies for the school fundraiser at their neighbors. May Belle was skippy, happy and cheerful. Surprisingly enough, the usual. That was her usual.

Jess was his usual, with a little less enthusiasm. Which now that I think about it, may have been his usual after all.

Jess gave me one of his sweaters to wear because I didn't have one. The first one he gave me was a grey Camp Lark Creek sweater that was the exact same color as my sweatpants. Mrs. Aarons thought it looked ridiculous, so Jess switched sweaters with me and gave me the blue one, also a product of Camp Lark Creek, I saw.

We stopped and got slurpees on the way to the baseball diamond.

Nolan, the little one who Jess and I helped babysit while we were there previously, wasn't there that night.

Jess and I had nobody but each other and his sisters. Who weren't much help themselves.

I remember sitting next to May Belle on the bench facing the diamond as she carved her name in the red rocks, followed by making the same circular motion in it until it was super dark and dug in.

She stood up and walked across the bench like a balance beam, with her arms held out at each side, stepping carelessly over me when I didn't move.

Most of that night was a blur. Honestly, I'm remembering smaller details than the actual experience.

Once Jess finished his slurpee, I ran both of ours over to the trash can which was all the way across the field, by the school and its playground.

After a while, Jess and I got bored of Brenda's complaining. Ellie just sat on the grass behind the diamond and studied. Joyce Ann was also whining the same tune as Brenda and May Belle was getting upset nobody wanted to play with her dolls with her.

Jess and I asked his dad if we could take the keys and go listen to music in the car. Now I remember him complaining about how hot he was. That's why we decided to go join the car and it's air conditioning.

This year, it's too cold. That's why we'd go in the car this year... huh.

So anyway, we raced over to the car. I tripped on a hole in the ground and fell. Jess, however, gave me no mercy and kept ahead, beating me to the car.

Once I got there, I opened the drivers side door and locked Jess out of the car. I let him bang on it and beg me to let him in. I teased him by unlocking it for a second and locking it again before he had time to open the door.

Eventually, he beat me to it and got the door open before I could lock it again. He demanded I get out and go in the passengers seat because it was his mom's car (his dad's truck was at the shop at the time) but I resisted.