Paths: A collection of Poems and Short Stories

The Sticky Bucket List

Hey guys this is a short story I wrote in my creative writing class that required us to write around one object. Mine ended up being a sticky note. Enjoy!

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Nena was standing by the door of the black and white diner. Her back was against the wall and the cigarette was between her fingers. She lifted the cigarette to her lips and pressed it against them gently. She inhaled deeply and then blew out a large puff of smoke. Nena's brown hair falls down around her shoulders, and her hazel eyes focused steadily on the cars passing by. She was noticeably beautiful. Not the stereotypical beautiful though. She wasn't super skinny. She didn't dress in designer clothes, and she didn't cake on makeup. She had a natural beauty. Her olive skin rounded out all of her features, making her beauty a rarity.

Nena sighs as she releases another toxic puff of smoke. A bad habit she picked up from a group of friends she probably should have never met. She hears the jingle of the diner door and a glimpse of familiar red hair belonging to Nena's best friend Maegan. The girl was a firecracker. Her bright red hair and light green eyes weren't the only things that kept her fierce demeanor. Maegan also had a noticeable Scottish accent, and a temper as easily triggered as turning on the lights.

"How's it going?" She asks, her accent not as deep as it once was years ago. Nena chuckles as she turns her attention to her oddly calm best friend.

"Fine. Same old, same old. Nothing new around, just how I like it." Nena mumbles as she flicks off the old ashes on the cigarette before taking another puff.

"This is our last year here. We should be planning with all those sticky notes and organization tools of yours." Maegan says bumping Nena's shoulder gently.

Nena was a clean freak. She had to make sure everything was spotless before she could leave a room. And Nena had a slight obsession with sticky notes. She had a pad in every color, and any opportunity she had to use them she took.

Nena drops her cigarette butt and steps on it, grinding the used cigarette into the ground before picking it up and throwing it away.

"You want to organize things? You? The queen of mess?" Nena says sounding astonished and quickly Maegan shakes her head.

"One, I am not the one with the nicotine habit, nasty. Two, I said we should be planning with your sticky notes, not organizing." Nena glares at Maegan as she opens the door to the diner.

"It's not a habit. I can quit anytime. Just not now." Nena says crossing her arms and Maegan shakes her head as she jumps behind the counter of the diner. Nena follows suit and walks toward the register.

"Wee lie there, pal. Not my point." Maegan mutters as she pulls on a dingy white apron. "We need... a bucket list type thing. A list of stuff to do before high school ends and we go to separate colleges." Maegan says quietly.

The two girls had been together since Maegan came to America with her family in the third grade. Nena and Maegan were always the odd pair. The most unlikely friends were partners in crime. They always wanted to stay together after high school but Maegan was going to college in Scotland and Nena was going to college in Rhode Island.

"A bucket list, huh?" Nena says as she looks toward her redheaded friend. "As long as get to use my sticky notes." Nena grins.

"Deal." Maegan say as she begins cooking the diner's famous burgers.

After work the girls walked home together like they did every day. Nena lived two houses down from Maegan. Their neighborhood was an average one. It was lined with houses and families. Kids played at the park down the street and if you drove down three more streets you could go swimming. Maegan and Nena lived in almost identical houses but Maegan's house was navy blue and Nena's was a dark gray. Nena steps into her house and Maegan walks passed her straight into the kitchen.

"Food." Maegan opens the refrigerator door and grabs a slice of pizza out of the box inside and takes a bite. "Mm. I love pizza." Maegan mumbles as she chews.

Nena crinkles her nose and shakes her head, "I'm going to grab my sticky notes. Try and leave me a slice." Nena says as she runs up the steps quickly. A few minutes later she runs back down the step with a wide container full to the brim with sticky note.

"Damn. Got enough sticky notes?" Maegan asks with her mouth full of her second slice of pizza.

"Swallow then talk please. And no. I will never have enough sticky notes." Nena says as she sits down at her dark oak table. "So... how's this going to work?" Nena asks.

Maegan sits beside Nena and leans on the table as she looks at the multi colored sticky notes, "Why don't we write down our bucket list. One thing we want to do before we graduate, one on each sticky note. Then we can throw them in some sort of box. We could shake the notes up and pick one out. Whatever is on the note is what we have to do before we move on to the next thing." Maegan explains.

"Sounds great. I'll write the first thing... how about we learn how to knit together." Nena suggests.

Maegan shrugs, "Aye, sounds good. I'm going to write down that you have to stop smoking." Maegan says as she steals a light pink pad of notes. Nena frowns deeply.

"I told you-"

"Shhhh... already wrote it down. It'd be such a waste of good notes," Maegan says with a sly smile, and she drops the note onto the table next to the one Nena just finished writing.

A few hours later the girls had a large pile of sticky paper.

"I am wiped. But I am ready to choose the first thing. I hope it helps you become less of a stick in the mud." Maegan says as she leans back in the ancient chairs that Nena's parents used as dining chairs.

Nena laughs, "What? I don't like change." She shrugs and she closes the pizza box. Maegan finished the last slice an hour ago and had decided it was a good idea to put their sticky bucket list in the greasy box. Nena didn't even have time to fight. Nena shakes the box and silently prays it's something easy, like going to an away football game.

"Alright let's decided our first bucket list, to do." Maegan says with a wide joyful grin. Nena winces as she opens the box and watches Maegan slip her hand into the greasy, sticky, pile of notes. Maegan pulls a yellow note out. It smelt like pizza and could literally have anything written on it, especially with some of Maegan's daring dreams. Maegan opened the sticky notes gently.

"It says... go skydiving." Maegan says with an amused smile.

"Oh no."