24 Hours With Lucas Jennings

Hour Twenty-Four

And it was the new hour. And we were running up the stairs towards the mini golf. And we were laughing. It was the beginning of the end, but instead of feeling ominous, it felt hopeful. We were on our way to something new, because everything gets old eventually and everything wears off. The charm and spunk of the bet was wearing off, but the memory would always carry a certain fondness of it; reminding me of the time I lost my mind while simultaneously falling in love.

I looked behind me and saw my future. I saw my lifelong friendship with Marie, I saw my life with Mike, and I saw my love for Lucas. Everything would be different after this. We were all going to go home with stories that seemed unimaginable; stories so odd that you couldn't have made them up, you only could have lived them.

We got to the top of the mini golf, claiming our territory once again. It was surprisingly empty, like our fellow cruise passengers knew why we needed it. We all screamed and jumped and twirled around; it was a time of celebration, and we needed to scream it to the world. We needed the world to know that we were all seventeen and crazy and lost but found. We needed the world to know that we weren't alone.

Marie and I flopped onto our backs and looked up at the clouds. My love for the sky was ever so present and persistent. We held hands and turned our heads towards each other, leading me to scrunch up my nose and giggle. Wesley and Lucas were shaking their heads, but were leaning over us and taking the pictures we had requested they take of us. We wanted to document this all, this moment, this day, this life.

The two of us stayed down, leaving the boys to go get the mini golf ready. Someone had started playing music on their phone and the rest of us started screaming along. It was a song we all knew, one of those loud ones that were perfect for screaming and singing along to.

Lucas walked over to me and sat down so that we were level with each other. He took my hand and slipped something into my open palm without saying anything. I flipped my palm around and smiled and happily made a scoffing noise at what it was. Lucas had given me a navy blue golf ball, just like the one from the day before.

"You remembered." I said, shocked that he remembered something as small as the color golf ball I had used the previous day.

"Yeah, well you did whine about it yesterday, so it kinda stuck." We both laughed, and I rolled my eyes at him.

Mike wasn't with us at the start of the bet, he didn't know what happened or why we flipped out over a game of mini golf, but it seemed like Marie and Jacob were filling him in.

"Sephora, you really decided to spend a day with a complete stranger?"

"Yes."

Mike was shaking his head, "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." Everyone laughed.

We were all sitting in a circle on the putt putt grass now, talking and telling more stories.

"Did I ever tell you guys about the time I tripped on my dress during opening night of Romeo & Juliet?"

"Did Sephora ever tell y'all about the time we were at the food court and she spilt her food all over herself as her crush walked by?"

And even Jacob spoke up, "I'm surprised that I got into UCLA, considering I completely bombed my interview with the Dean."

And it went on like that for awhile, ignoring the mini golf game we were supposed to be playing so that we could sit and laugh and reminisce with each other.