Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

He's Back

Graduating didn't feel any different that regular life, except I had less homework and Ryan and I had more time for each other (more or less). I bought the place and stayed at home and put together a budget, working on the apartment every day with Rian. Life became pretty routine for the week that could be; I got up, drove into town, worked in the coffee shop, then when I got off, I picked up Rian, then we worked on the apartment until I had to drive him back to the music shop. I usually drove back home after that, then slept hard until the next morning, when it started over again. The weekends usually consisted of sleeping in, sleeping with Ryan or sleeping in with Ryan.

One day, I brought over my mini fridge from my room because Rian had complained about being thirsty the day before. That day, we went out to buy drinks to put in the miniature refrigerator and get some more cleaning supplies at the local supermarket.

On the same isle as the cleaning supplies was the toy section. They had travel versions of classic (or at least my version of classic) board games such as Trouble and Hungry Hungry Hippos. But most importantly, they had Connect Four.

All my childhood memories came flooding back to me and I recalled the time to Rian when I would play these games with the neighborhood kids. He told me I needed them and I agreed, then placed them in the shopping cart.

Rian went on a search for juice boxes while I tried to find peanut butter when I bumped into Dallon. Literally.

I looked away from the gigantic bags of rice on the shelves when I heard the noise of the carts crashing. He did the same and we asked each others names simultaneously.

I laughed incredulously. "Hey," I said.

"Hi," he responded.

"It's great to see you," I said, hopefully staring a good conversation and practicing my adult small-talking skills. "How have you been?"

"Alright," he said. "You?"

"Good, good," I answered. "Tired."

"I understand," he said. "So life after high school isn't how you expected it to be?"

"No," I said. "But it's probably better than I expected."

"That's great," he said. "Are you renting an apartment? Found a job? Got a roommate?"

"I bought and apartment, got a job to pay for it, and don't have a roommate. Yet."

He raised his eyebrows inquisitively and motioned for me to continue.

"Well, the place I bought is like one of those places that has a shop on the bottom and a living space on top?"

He nodded. "I know what you're talking about. Those places are awesome."

I nodded vigorously and smiled. "I know, right? But the only thing is that it really needs a lot of work, so part of the tired thing I mentioned earlier is because I work half the day, then work on the house the other half. But I have a friend helping me, so it makes it easier."

"Awesome," he said. "So he's living there with you?"

"No, I still live at home and he's only helping. I'm actually hoping to share it with my boyfriend when I'm finished. His name is Ryan. He went to the school."

He nodded. "Well, that's amazing. It's great that you're so well off so early. I wasn't doing this good... ever." He chuckled.

"Speaking of which, did you graduate college? To become a music teacher?"

"No, not until next year, but I'll still be in the program that lets me teach with Ms. Archer, so that's a plus."

"Awesome," I said. "I'm actually planning on becoming a music teacher myself."