The Bucket List [boyxboy]

Chapter Five

Saturday, February 6, 2016

I don't have much patience for Anita on the best of days and today I guess she woke up feeling adventurous because she decided to test it.

She came round mine at like stupid o clock, honestly it must have been before midday, because I was still asleep when she just burst into my room and bounced onto the bed and was like, 'Hey.'

And obviously I thought something really bad was happening, like that my mom had put on some water to boil and forgotten about it again and we were having another fire except this time it was more serious than, you know, the stupid fire alarm going off and annoying me and her throwing a jug full of water onto it (which I still don't think should have worked, because it was water that was on fire, what was adding more water to the mix going to achieve, but it turns out I was wrong at the time) and I sort of sat up all panicked and she laughed at me because I guess my hair was a mess? I dunno, she said I had drool on my face but she's a nasty little liar because I DON'T drool.

I've tried to institute a house ban on Anita on MORE than one occasion, but my mom and her mom are friends and I've been having FORCED playdates with Anita since I was born (she's three months older than me and never lets me forget it) and my mom just sort of tinkles this laugh at me like she thinks I'm making a hilarious joke, which I'm not. Anyway the upshot of this is that Anita thinks she can waltz in here whenever she wants and she's right. She can. Because of my mother.

Once I realised she was bothering me for NO REASON I was like, 'Bitch, what do you want?' And she just said she wanted to hang out and then she pulled one of those big Dairy Milk bars out of her purse because she knows they're my weakness and that's the only reason I let her stay.

So she got in bed with me even though I sleep in my underwear and we watched films on my laptop and ate the chocolate for a while and then she was like, 'So what's going on with you and Byron anyway?'

Sneaky bitch.

That's the whole reason she came over in the first place, I'm sure of it. To find out the gossip. So much for like, bonding over illegally downloaded chick flicks and candy.

I didn't say anything because there isn't anything going on with me and Byron, even though he doodles in my English textbook every day and I think about him a lot when he's not around and sometimes when he smiles at me I can feel my stomach clench in this way that's super painful but also kind of nice?

And she was like, 'Dude, do you like him or not?'

So I just shrugged, and she started shaking her head like, 'Charlie, I know you and I know you have a whole heart,' (what the fuck? Of course I have a whole heart? So does she? And everyone who doesn't have a congenital defect? Whatever) 'and I know that when you fall for somebody you fall hard and I don't doubt for a second that you wold be so good for him and to him and that he would fall topsy turvy in love with you, but...'

And she didn't have to finish, because we both already knew but what.

So I was like, 'I just think he's sweet and I want to be nice to him while he's still around. That's all. Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself. You're going to be alone forever. You already have four cats. You often smell of pee. You have a worrying pre-drug addiction. Did you even shower today?'

Monday, February 8, 2016

We all sat down to lunch at the same time today and as the rest of us were messing around with jelly containers and the straws for our juice boxes Abby just calmly took out this little notebook she has and a pencil and opened it to the most recent page and draw a very careful single straight line, like a capital letter I.