"Is she dead?" A low voice whispers.
"I don't know. What should a corpse look like?"
"I think it's..."
"Shhhhhh, she's waking up."
I open my eyes slowly. My sight is blurred for a few seconds before they fully adjust to my surroundings. Simone and Lacey are sitting by my bedside, their faces bent down so that they are so close to mine, their eyes huge with wonder.
"Why are you guys so close to my face?"
"Do you remember us?" Lacey slowly asks, choosing her words carefully. "I'm Lacey." She points to Simone. "And this is Simone." She points to herself.
"I know who you guys are." With a hand, I push their faces away from me and sit upright on my bed, my blue bed sheets falling down to my waists as I notice I'm no longer in the clothes I wore last night.
"Who brought me here?" I ask.
"We don't know. We came in this morning and saw you looking like you were dead." Simone explains.
"The pa
I'm sitting on a chair in the middle of Miss Renee's office. Noah and Cory are both sitting by my sides in silence. I'm currently shivering from the cold; my hair is sticky and my clothes are dripping wet. The two boys by my sides aren't looking very good either. A dark bruise is forming at Noah's cheekbone, with a small cut on his lips, his clothes damp. Cory's lower lips is fully swollen, and let me not forget to mention the black eye.You may be wondering, 'how the fuck did we end up like this?'Alright, let me enlighten you a bit. 35 minutes earlier."I'm so not giving him mouth to mouth," Cory says, kneeling with me beside an unconscious Noah laying on the floor. "Let's just hide his dead body."My chest rises up and down in a fast panting pace as I try to catch my breath, managing to throw Cory a glare. Swimming deep underwater is one thing, but dragging a full grown human being that might be 5ft taller than you while struggling
"When we get older, do old people become attractive to you?" Lacey spreads nail polish on her fingernails. "Like, when I'm seventy, are seventy year old men going to look hot? This is a real concern of mine."Simone is doing push-ups on the floor while Lacey sits Indian style on her back, carrying them both up and down. I stopped counting when she passed fifty push-ups.I'm in a black and white Panda Onesie, with Pixi glow facial mask on my face to prevent wrinkles. The kind of stress I go through in a day is enough to make me look old."How many push-ups did I do?" Simone pants, laying face down on the floor."I stopped counting. Lacey did you keep up?""Uh...""Jesus Christ. All you guys had to do was help me count. Thanks a lot." Lacey falls over when Simone stands up, trudging into the bathroom to take a shower."A little warning would've been fine. Now my paint is smudged," the bathroom door slams at
My decision to spend the evening at the hotel pub was a logical one. A professional one. I prefer thinking of it that way, as it's a little too hard on my ego to admit I'm here largely to look at Noah.I'm not being stalky. You can say I'm a woman on a mission.Most of the tables are full— families, couples, tour groups, the Kingston boys huddle together over pints and glasses and conversations. A young boy who can't be more than fifteen sits in a corner playing a weepy tune on a concertina. A fire is being lit, as with the evening weather had gone chilly and damp, and around the red glow of simmering turf a trio of old men with wind raw faces sit smoking contemplatively and tapping booted feet to the music.I see Lacey at the far end of the bar, having what appears to be the most serious of discussion with a man who had to be a hundred and two years old.The past two days have been what you can call the longest days of my life. Si
Despite the fact that I slept wonderfully with a smile on my face, I wake up next morning in the complete opposite way."I don't think this is a good idea," Lacey tells me, eyeing the water below us.Lacey, Simone and I agreed to go boat cruising this afternoon after some group of people did theirs this morning. I only joined them hoping it'll lift up my mood a bit.It doesn't.I'll talk more on my ugly mood later on.Let me focus on the two lovebirds on a boat across Lacey's and I. The boats we found were tiny and could only manage two persons on it, but Simone suggested we take two boats. Meaning Lacey and I share one and she invites Tom over to use the second boat with her.So basically, she ditched us for him.Their combined weights makes the boat dip in the middle, pulling them towards each other until they're touching almost everywhere. They lock gazes for a long period of time, and I can almo
"How many damn movie theaters are in this city?" I wipe a bead of sweat from my forehead, glancing over at Noah as we walk down to a café shop.Despite being a Floridian, where summers are usually incredibly brutal which I should've already been used to, I cannot help but feel like my insides are on fire under the current Honolulu afternoon sun. I'm sweating in all places I didn't think would be normal to secrete liquid in the human body. Yes, including my butt.I swear, the devil escaped from hell and sat on the world today.Let's just say there's a reason my favorite season is winter."Let me ask Siri," Noah pulls out his iPhone from his jean pockets and long presses on the home button, bringing the phone up to his mouth. "How many movie theaters are in Honolulu?" He says into the phone.Immediately, various answers pop out from the internet and he reads them carefully. "It says here there's fifteen.""Great.
Seeing Cory at the front row seat just makes me realize how much I missed him. It also makes me feel guilty I didn't realize he was missing till Noah brought it to my notice. Don't blame me, I've been too busy trying to get my brain in proper check after that kiss.Just thinking about it again has my stomach doing somersaults."What are you waiting for?" Noah steps in beside me, completely oblivious to my inner battles not to yell 'YOU KISSED ME, YOU FUCKING IDIOT' at his face. "Go to him. I'll wait right here."Gripping both my shoulders, he nudges me forward and occupies a seat at the rear end of the hall, watching as the movie plays on the screen.Shoving all hormonal thoughts to the back of my head, I begin to walk down the stairs where the front row seats are arranged and as I near where Cory is seated, his full profile comes in view. Ruffled hair, puffy eyes, stubbled chin, a half empty bottle of beer in his hand— what the he
I was sixteen when I got the news. The news that changed my life. It was the first of the biggest surprises I had gotten that day and I thought nothing would compare to the emotional turmoil I had gone through that day.Honey, your father and I are getting a divorce.It took me several seconds to finally comprehend what my mom had said. And when I finally managed to get my composure back, it felt like all blood had drained from my body.Now, what Noah is currently telling me a mere two years later, comes close to a third."What?" I splutter out.He looks over at me, a frown etched on his face, and for the first time, I finally understand why he's the way he is. A criminal for a brother, two unsupportive parents— it's terrible to imagine."Ever heard of Nathan G. Johnston? He was all over the news two years ago."I shook my head. "I don't exactly watch the news.""That's my older brother. And he's in jail
"Are you guys official?" I ask Simone as I flip over the pancakes on the pan."Well, he asked me out a week ago and I told him I needed time to think. And then this morning I went to his room wearing his sweater and I was like 'hey, do you like this sweater?' and he was like 'yeah' and then I said 'thanks, it's my boyfriend's'. Then he smiled and like picked me up and hugged me.""Oh my God, that's so sweet.""That's so cliche," Lacey forks a pancake into her mouth."I say you're jealous," Simone crosses her arms over her chest. "I say you probably met a good guy too but the Dora in you still want to explore.""Did you just call me a hoe?""Maybe I didn't. Maybe I did."Lacey's eyes narrow into slits. "Well, fuck you too."She forks another pancake into her mouth and walks out on us, slamming the kitchen door in a loud thud."Did you see that? What's wrong with her?" Simone