The Two of Us

Juice

School ended eventually. Y'know, like it usually did. If it never ended, I would've assumed I was in a time loop of some kind.

Or in purgatory.

I walked back home with Bonnibel, as usual. She did most of the talking, which I was fine with because I was officially too tired to contribute.

And that would be because in Fitzgerald's class we did a scavenger hunt across the school. Government related, of course. And with stupid riddles you needed to solve in order to find anything.

I sucked at riddles, but luckily, we got to work in groups of three, meaning I ended up with Leslie and Blair by my side.

And even more luckily, unlike me, Leslie was actually pretty smart and solved all the riddles while Mr. Fitzgerald was still giving directions.

Once he was finished, Leslie declared that she was done contributing and decided to disappear into the haunted bathroom to... Well, I don't know. Anyway, it left me and Blair to find the items. Fair enough, I supposed. We ended up agreeing on splitting up to find the shit, but then it turned competitive and we started racing to see who could find more stuff.

It was fun at the time, but running around nonstop for the entirety of class left me fucking exhausted.

Blair won, by the way. She playfully rubbed it in my face while I laid sprawled out on the classroom floor trying to catch my breath.

Anyway, Bonnibel and I parted ways when we reached my house.

"See ya, Baby!"

"Bye."

I found Eddie standing by the front door when I started up the pathway. His truck was parked crooked in the driveway, as usual.

"Hey, Riley!" he greeted.

"Hey, Ed. What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to give you this!" He handed me something.

"What's this?"

"A juice! I told you I'd get you another one!"

"Oh, thanks." I didn't actually expect him to get me another one after he spilled my first one earlier.

"Are you excited for homecoming!?" He bounced excitedly as I unlocked the front door.

"Uh, I guess." I had Blair as a date. Of course I was excited. Well, it was a friend date. But I was still just as excited. "We still have a while before we have to go, though."

"I know! Isn't it awful? I'm so excited that I'm not sure if I'll survive the wait!"

I shut the door after Eddie came in, locking it and kicking my Converse off onto the shoe rack. "I think you will, Ed."

"Well, I don't think I will! I'm gonna get ready now!" He sped up the stairs faster than the speed of sound, tripping twice. Typical.

"He's gonna ruin his suit putting it on early, I swear," I said to Bidy, who meowed in response. "I know, right?"

I took a sip of the juice Eddie gave me. Pretty sure it was more sugar than juice, but I wasn't surprised. Eddie picked it out, after all. And he's like, 99.9% sugar. That's why he's so hyper, I think.

Eddie poked his head around the wall by the top of the staircase and said something, but I didn't catch it.

"Pardon?"

"I said, do you want me to drive you to school this time?"

"You know what? Sure."

"Really?!"