Those Who Remain

Prologue

"Oh ya, girl! Get it, and shed it! Shed it pills will aid everyone, no matter their weight, body type, or stamina, to shed those unwanted pounds. So, get your bottle to-" the TV projected as I decided to change the channel to avoid the god awful commercial for the new diet pills that dropped today. I shook my head at the stupidity of some people who take them. Most of these pills help shed water weight, which leads to dehydration.

The commercial depicted a young woman running on a treadmill after taking the pill and drinking a glass of water. As she was running, her friend had walked by saying their slogan, get it, and shed it. The commercial was cheesy and annoying, but that is how you make the words stick in people's heads.

As I looked for something else to watch, Ridge called me, making me jump since my ringer was on full blast.

Ridge and I had been best friends since our first day at college. We ended up in the same freshman orientation group, and we hit it off right away. We hung out every day for the first week of school, then, when classes started, we had two together: intro to nursing and calculus one. Having a friend in calc was amazing because checking answers with someone else helps a lot. Every semester after that, we did our schedules so we would have at least one class together. Another good bonding experience we had was we live in the exact same town in Indiana.

"Hey, Ridge! What's up," I said, answering the phone, putting the TV on mute so I could hear him properly with no distractions.

"Hey Gem, guess what?" he said in exacerbation, confusing me because he is not one to get frustrated quickly.

"What's wrong?" I asked, letting a concerned tone flow out of my mouth so he wouldn't actually make me guess what the problem was.

"You wouldn't believe the lines at CVS right now! Those stupid fucking diet pills are already getting on my nerves. I wish people would realize that shit never works how they say it will," he said, and I can picture him rolling his eyes at me if we were having this conversation in person. It was his signature when annoyed.

"Is it really that bad?" I asked, but then retracted the question, "You know what, don't answer that. I already know the answer. People are so stupid. Have you tried to go to a different CVS or maybe Walgreens?"

"I'm on my way to another CVS now. I just want my fucking razors, and I have a coupon from CVS to get five dollars off. Razors are expensive, but at this point, I'll waste the five dollars and go to Target to get them. At least they have a shit ton of checkout lanes," he ranted to me highly frustrated, which made a grin grow on my face.

Before he hung up to go inside the new CVS, I asked him, "Do you wanna go to dinner tonight? I get off work today at five."

"Sure, I'm down for some B-Dubs wings. Does that sound good to you?" Ridge asked, and I immediately agreed.

"As long as we get desert heat, you won't hear any complaints from me," I replied, and he laughed at me.

"The lines at Target shouldn't be as bad as the CVS's, so I'm gonna go there. Do you want me to pick you up at 5:30? I'll bring you back to your car after," he asked me, and I agreed before we hung up.