Sunset Under the Waterfall

Chapter 10: Necklaces and Memories

" Where is it?!" I frantically ran around my room, looking for my favorite shirt. It was a white shirt but the higher to the neck it went, the more colors started to a appear. After ten minutes of overturning my whole room, even going under my bed to find my old trombone, a piece of sheet music from my high school days about God's or something like that, I found my shirt. It was in my pants drawer of my dresser. Who ever put there, I will stab them. (Probably was me who put the shirt there.)

I put on deodorant, then the shirt, and finally threw on my denim short sleeve jacket. I looked at myself in the mirror. " Come on, Martin, you can do this. Just be you and impress him." I looked myself again and wondered how he even possibly liked me. I put my phone in my pocket and looked at my watch. 4:30

I stepped outside my room, finding my mom at the counter making her specialty: Pasta Salad Surprise. She looked focused on her work, but saw me, and pulled herself away. "Hi Baby. Wow, someone looks ready to go to a fancy dinner with his family!"

My face probably turned about as white as flour. My mom started dying from laughter and fell to the floor, hitting it with her hand. " Oh my god! Sweety, I was joking. We're not going to a place for dinner." She got up slowly, holding her sides from laughing so hard. " So, where are you going?"

I answered honestly," I don't know."

She looked at me puzzled, " Ok... Why are you going somewhere?"

Now this question, I couldn't answer truthfully. " I'm going to hang out with Dylan and he's taking me somewhere as a surprise, you know, like a friend thing. I actually have friends somehow."

She smiled," Well that's good. What time are you leaving and coming back?"

"6 and 9," I quickly said. "That is okay, right?"

"Yes. You want something to eat before you go?"

Would I? I mean, is Dylan taking me out to eat or not? If he is, then I don't want to fill up on any other food. But, wouldn't he tell me if we were? Why am I getting so worked up about this? I need to be calm, or Mom would start to get a bit suspicious, and I wasn't ready to tell her about my feelings for Dylan.

   "No thanks," I answered calmly, or at least as calm as I could make it sound," We might go out to dinner or make some food at his house." Crap.  That sounded like he was taking me out on a dinner date. I was scared that I was blushing beyond belief. Thankfully, she didn't notice any blushing, or there was no blushing in general. Both were fine. I said I was leaving and I went back to my room.

    I looked at my clock, it read 4:40. God why did it feel so long? Why did it feels that this day was stocking maple syrup moving at like half the speed and we should be even slower than half the speed? I honestly wouldn't be able to describe it any other time because it all seems quicker and memory ,but in real life, it was slow, it felt like I was a snail.

     My door room opened, and Clarissa marched in valiantly with her head held high, her chest puffed out, her arms stuck up like she was so proud of her self. "Hey Clarissa, what's up?" I asked her. She replied with courage swimming through her voice," Well, you remember how I told you about that girl that I punched at the party? I told her how I felt about her and she replied that she would like to go on a date. She said she would be set for going on a date next week. What do you think?"

I felt so happy. I mean, it's cool how she can be cool about being gay. And, if she was gay, maybe I could tell her...

"That's great. But, please, don't tell me I have to drive you guys to wherever you guys are going?"

"Nah, I think I'd start playing really annoyingly on my flute before I do that to you." Ok, really quick, confession time: I hate the flutes. Sure, the instrument is cool (not as cool as the brass section in my opinion ), but a lot of the people in my band class who were flutes, they were jerks, and another one was someone who hurt me. He's the reason...

I snapped back into the present," You do that and I swear to god, I will take apart your flute and I will press every single one of those tiny buttons on your forehead and make it look like you're trying to grow a third eye."

She scooted away, looking at an old picture on my desk," I miss Emerald..."

I had a friend named Emerald when I was younger. He worked at a candy store with his sisters and his mom and dad. He always brought black licorice to lunch. We would geek out about new books, games, music, and some awesome tv shows. He stuck with me, even through my darkest hour, during that time when Jacob...

No! I yelled inside my head, I can't think about him! Today is my night with Dylan! Stop!

I got up. I walked to my desk, grabbed the picture frame, opening it to reveal a post-it note flutter onto my desk as well as a pouch. I read the post-it note:

Dear Martin,

I still can't believe that you have to leave. You were the one person that made me feel like I had a place. I mean, Olivia excluded. As much as I will miss our talks about the new Rick Riordan books, or the new music I'll have to play without for the next however many years of school. I asked Olivia to make this thing for you, I know you might not like necklaces, but it's what I think perfectly represents our friendship. Sadly, it's not an emerald, hehe, not me, it's a sapphire. As blue as the sea, in which soon we will be, a thousand tides to hold the blame, and a million droplets to ignite the flame. Wasn't that the 'prophecy' we made up? Who knows? Maybe I'll see you again, just wear the necklace so I know it's you.
- Emerald

I let the note slip out of my hands and picked up the little package, opened it carefully, as I'm I would break it if I wasn't careful enough. When I reached into the package, I pulled out a sapphire incased in a thin metal wire in a teardrop shape and a silver thread to wrap around my neck. I slipped it over my head and it suddenly made me feel stronger, more mature.

I realized it was 5:20. Clarisse had left me alone, standing awkwardly over my desk, looking over the note. I looked at my phone when I saw a notification. A text from Dylan.

Dylan: Hey, I'm still picking you up, right?

  Me: Yeah, do I also get to know where we're going?

  Dylan: hahahahahaha
                No

   Crap, worth a shot. I thought I might be able to get it, but, if it's a surprise, I'll have to wait. But my legs were bouncing, my mind was flowing with ideas of where we were going. My whole body felt like it was incased in hot coals. I was nervous all around. I almost didn't notice the knocking at my door.

"Come in," I answered. The door creaked open, revealing something that was both amazing and horrifying. The door revealed a boy my age and height, emerald green eyes glowing bright. A smile pulled his face from both sides. "Martin Vale, it has been quite some time."
  
      I rushed up to hug him. I sobbed a little (Emerald always says that there was basically a lake on his shirt, which is definitely not true). "It's good to see you too, Emerald."