Sobriety Is Super Overrated

Happy Together

I take in a deep breath, I know that Dave is going to be disappointed in me, but I have to tell him. I have to confess about the drugs.

"There's something I've been needing to tell you, too."

Previously, I'd been on and off trying to quit, Dave encouraged me to stop but I'd never really been able to after everything I'd seen. And most of the time I didn't have much time for drugs, so I'd only do it at night when Dave wasn't paying attention anyway. Although I tried to be quite he still heard me sometimes when I came back late at night. I remember a few nights before he died. I made him a promise.

The leaves rustled in the faint wind, it was a particularly cool night tonight and I had snuck out to the bar once again.

Dave agreed to go out with me once, but then when he got just a bit too drunk and we accidentally ended up kissing in front of everyone, he was too ashamed to come back with me again, even though nobody saw us.

That night I had a few too many drinks. I was swaying on my feet as I entered our tent.

I was trying to be quite, but the ground was swaying beneath my feet and I could barely stand up straight. I knew that in the morning I would have a terrible headache.

I expected Dave to be sound asleep, maybe even snoring, but when I'd walked into the tent I found him wide awake. Every so often he would have nightmares and wake up in middle of the night, unable to fall asleep again.

"Klaus."

"Hey Dave."

"Promise me something, please."

"Anything you want."

"Promise me that if I die, you'll quit with the drugs, and you'll keep living. And not like how you're living now. You have a full life ahead of you and I don't want you to waste it grieving over me."

"I promise."

I was drunk, but I made my best effort to sober up. Dave was being serious about this. That if he died, he wanted me to quit and get better and live on without him.

But Dave was my world.

I couldn't live on without him.

I couldn't stand to look Dave straight in the eye. I knew that when he heard he would be disappointed in me. I was having a staring contest with the floor.

"I broke my promise, D-dave." My voice cracked in the middle of my sentence. I felt like a failure, I wasn't strong enough to quit. I wasn't strong enough to stop dad. I wasn't strong enough to kill that Vietcong. I wasn't strong enough to do anything on my own.

I could feel Dave's strong arms wrap around me. Now it was my turn to cry on his shoulder.

"I'm s-sorry. I tried to but I just couldn't. All I wanted was to be able to see you again and when you didn't sh-show up, I just broke." The tears were streaming down my face and I could do little to stop them. I had been crying a lot these past few days, and all I wanted to do was stop. Get over this and stop being sad.

"Don't. Don't say you're sorry, it was my fault for avoiding you."

I wiped my tears away. I'm done with this sad shit. None of that matters now that Dave's here. Now that he's here we might as well celebrate.

"It was nobody's fault. Now let's please stop this pity party and go do something fun."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well 2019 is completely different from 68' and I was just thinking since you haven't seen it yet....."

"Where ever we go is fine as long I'm with you."

"You're such a hopeless romantic."

He playfully punched my shoulder.

"Shut up, you know you're a sucker for that cheesy shit."

"Hey! No need to call me out like that."

"Well maybe I'm a sucker for cheesy romance, too." Dave's whole face turned tomato red, if he knew he would probably disagree with me, but in my opinion Dave's blush is the cutest thing in the world.

"Come on, let's go see the world." I grab his hand and, our fingers intertwined, I march him out of the room.

I'm still secretly itching for some drugs or a beer or something but I know if I bring it up, Dave will be upset. And this is supposed to be his welcome back. I try my best to ignore my cravings as we make our way through the giant mansion and all the way to the grande front entrance.

Right as we're almost down the third staircase and out the door, Five appears in a flash of blue.

"Are you ready to help save the world?" He throws a sly grin my way, as though we're about to either go blow something up or kick some serious ass. Which is to say that we're probably about to do both.

I look over at Dave, and then back to Five.

"Is it okay if someone tags along?"

As soon as I say that Ben shows up beside me. Technically Five said that we would need the full force of the Academy in order to save the world, and we wouldn't have all of us without Ben. Then I remember that Dave has completely no idea about the apocalypse.

"Dave, there's one more thing I should probably tell you." I say scratching the back of my neck. I'm not quite sure how to say this to him. We just got back together and now I have to go save the world, even though I'm hoping he can come too I know he probably doesn't want to deal with anymore fighting or killing than he already has in the war.

"The world is about to end, very soon-"

"-in eight days to be more precise." Five interrupts.

"And unless we figure out how to save it the whole world is doomed. But what I want to know is whether or not you want to come with?"

"Come with you were?"

"To help save the world, silly."