Slowtown

18

Josh and Jenna look at each other.

He speaks, "Besides being stuck here like we're on a deserted island, how did we become friends?"

"We played twenty questions, and I couldn't answer any of them," she rolls her eyes, and they land on me. "So are we your best friends yet?"

"I guess." I do like them.

Josh takes a long look out the window. "I'm bored."

"Thanks for the PSA."

She lets out a short laugh.

I begin to feel more like myself. "Yeah, what do you guys do to not get bored everyday?"

She answers, "I live in a state of perpetual boredom, so much so that it has become embedded into my personality."

"Sure."

"I run around a lot," is what Josh says.

"And you do a lot of dangerous crap without thinking twice," she almost shouts at him. She elaborates to me for a moment, "He pulls stunts all the time, and it scares the crap out of me. I hate it when you do that Josh."

"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you about what I did a few days ago."

"Oh God."

"Went into the forest,"–she's already about to freak out, but he puts a hand out to stop her– "and climbed a tree and jumped off it."

"And that didn't work out for you, of course."

"No, so two days later, I went back in and tried something, which lead to a great failure of a discovery: those trees won't burn."

Her eyes, wide and blank with disbelief, stare at the wall for a moment. "Are you saying that you tried to start a forest fire... and it didn't work?" her voice heightens.

"I swear, it was so weird."

"Look, as long as you don't go in there at night...." She contemplates and looks very perplexed, but I'm just lost again. I'm nervous now. I should say something now, shouldn't I? Um. It's not dark. But still. "Do you guys stay up late?"

Josh gives what is most accurately described as a miserable chuckle. "We hardly sleep at all. You see these dark circles? I look like I punched myself in the face," he points under his eyes. Holy crap, I see now that it's like an actual bruise. Hardcore.

"Actually, I sleep a lot when he's not around," she adds, "which means when he is around, I can go more than 24 hours awake. Day and night doesn't matter anymore, I'll black out whenever I can."

"Great. Night is my day, and vice versa. I've got some killer insomnia which bites me in the ass every morning," I say, trying to sound like it doesn't bother me, but it really sucks.

"Like a bat, cool." She gets it.

I watch Josh pick at his jeans. In the corner of my eye, I see her head turn, so I meet her eyes. She looks at me; I'm caught. I stare at her. It's incredibly unfair to see such a captivating face but know that she's incomplete.

If there's a way to talk to people with your eyes, I hope I'm communicating to her that I will help you. But help with what? She said it, if after all this time she can't remember, she doesn't want to know. But I want to know.