THE BUCKET LIST ─ L. HEMMINGS ✓

(12) the bucket list

❂

The drive was silent. This silence was painful.

I took in a deep breath, "Lucas, I want to go home."

He furrowed his brows, "why would you?"

"Maybe because last time we did this nothing went right. We didn't talk for two weeks."

"That's the past, Alex. Stop dwelling on the past. The past is the past and we are living in the present as we move into the future."

I laughed at him, "shut up, you sound like someone in coffee shop poetry reading."

He laughed, too and glanced at me, "I've been considering doing that while you're gone."

"Right."

He shook his head, "I'm being serious. I'm not going to have any friends and I think it'd be a great way to get out there make friends." I know he's being sarcastic.

"Have you been to the campus yet?" I asked him as I tried to get comfortable in my passenger seat.

He glanced at me, "yeah. It's nice."

"Move in day is in less than a week, are you ready for that?"

He tensed up a bit, "Kind of."

❂

I grabbed Lucas' and pulled him to the Gum Wall. I followed the directions on my phone after Lucas tried taking us the wrong way.

We approached the stone wall, covered in various colored pieces of gum. I crossed my arms over my chest as Lucas dug into his pocket for a packet of gum.

"So, why was it so important for you to bring me here?" I asked him.

He put a piece of gum into his mouth and hand me one. "We're contributing to public art."

I turned to him and mumbled, "this is disgusting and unsanitary, Lucas."

"This is art, Alex. Now take the damn gum and chew it for the wall."

I rolled my eyes and snatched from his hand before unwrapping it and putting it in my mouth.

"Thank you." I stuck my tongue out at him and began chewing the gum. He threw his arm around my shoulder, "Take a good look at this masterpiece. This all done by the public, its an interactive experience that you can't help, but love."

I took in a deep breath and looked around for a few minutes with Lucas clung to me. "I guess its an interesting concept that I wouldn't mind adding to."

"See! I knew you'd come to like it."

"I never said I liked it, its just interesting."

"I'll still take that over you being disgusted."

I jumped on his back and he moved towards the wall as he held onto my calves. I pulled the gum out my mouth and reached up as high as could to stick it to the wall. I dropped down from his back and Lucas stuck his piece to the brick wall.

"Do you feel better now that you did this?" Lucas asked me.

I shook my head, "I feel like I need to wash my hands."