Count On Me

Opening Up

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 | 6:55 PM | TRIS

My ankles are crossed on the dash of Uriah's car and my hand is out the window, the wind tickling my fingers. Uriah and I have just started the one-hour drive home from a carefree day in the Columbia River Gorge, celebrating our two-year anniversary.

My phone blares out the Darth Vader theme. My dad is calling. Again. I swear, he makes more effort to talk to me now than he did when we lived in the same house.

I quickly straighten up to grab it and silence it.

"You ever gonna answer him?" Uriah asks.

"Why would I want to do that?" I ask, putting the phone away in my bag before grabbing hold of Uriah's hand again.

Uriah shrugs. "I was only curious, Tris."

"That was a lot of fun today," I say, changing the subject. "Haven't had enough time with you lately, work schedules always getting in the way. And it's only about to get worse."

"I know, I've been missing you, too. But I agree, today was a lot of fun. So, you'd like to try it again sometime, then?" Uriah asks, smiling.

We tried windsurfing today, something we have never done before. It was really fun and we laughed a lot, then we went to a pizzeria for some pepperoni and pineapple and played arcade games together.

"Yeah," I say, "definitely would windsurf again. The pizza place, though... I don't know, I think I'll keep you away from arcade ticket counters from now on."

Uriah pouts. "That hat was awesome. I don't know what you had against it."

"The hat was ridiculous, and I would have had to pretend not to know you if you had worn it."

He rolls his eyes. "Well, at least those kids were happy when you made me give them all our tickets. But we can go to an arcade anywhere, I was asking about the windsurfing."

"I know," I say. "It was really fun, and I'd like to go out that way again to check out a few more of those trails and waterfalls we saw signs for. I'll have to try google and see if I can find some safe places for cliff jumping."

"Definitely. I think we're running out of warm weather, though."

"True. Ugh, what are we gonna do with ourselves once the weather gets bad? I can't stay holed up in that apartment with Four all the time," I sigh.

"Only an hour or so drive to the ski resorts. We need to decide which one to get season tickets for the lift. Zeke says Meadows and Timberline are good, but Ski Bowl is closer," Uriah says, comparing the nearby ski resorts.

"It's also cheaper by about a hundred dollars," I remind him.

"Shorter season. It's at a lower elevation."

I sigh. "That's true. It's just, it's already taking so long to save up to get our own place, Uri. The longer it takes, the longer we have to live with Four. As it is we're going to be stuck with him for what, another six months. I'll kick your ass if the extra cost for the lift tickets and gas is what bumps that up to seven."

"A longer snowboarding season would get us out of the apartment more, though," Uriah points out. I can't deny that he has a point there. "Look, Tris, I get it. I really do. The tension in that place makes my skin crawl sometimes."

I look at his face and see his tongue poking out the side of his mouth. "Maybe we can each pick up a few more hours at work? That's the other option, more money coming in," he shrugs.

I shake my head. "No. We thought it out very carefully, Uriah. This is our first term of college. If we want to do well, we need enough time to study and all that. If I'm working too many hours, I may as well not have paid my tuition, you know no one is helping me and I don't want loans," I remind him. "Besides, if we're working more hours we won't even have a day off each week to go up to the mountain, then why even bother with a season pass?"