expired

Chapter 2, Part 1

Tia's house was always quiet, which I liked. It was so much different than mine. Her mom always answered the door, greeting me with a smile, asking me how I was, if my parents were okay, if Matt was still being "ornery as ever". Though it sounds like it, this wasn't the cheesy and fake conversation that every parent gives their child's friends when they come in the house. Tia's mom was actually interested in what I had to say, nodding as I talked with her in the doorway. It wasn't like I really had anywhere to be, Tia was usually asleep when I came over anyways.

    After catching up with Mrs. Das I went up to Tia's room, where she laid dead asleep under the covers. I looked at her clock, which was running at a slightly slower pace than normal. The rumours were true, getting a good 8 (or 12) hours really would add onto your life.

    Seeing that Tia and I didn't need a very formal greeting anymore, I jumped onto her bed, probably scaring the daylights out of her. Tia jumped, reaching under her bed for something to protect herself with. She settled on a fluffy teddy bear, whacking me over the head with it repeatedly and screaming like an Amazonian warrior. I got close enough to Tia that I could rip her eyemask off of her head so she could see me, but she had her eyes squinched shut.

    "Tia," I said repeatedly, trying to pull the stuffed toy from her hands, but she wouldn't budge, continuing to beat me senseless with the poor stuffed bear. "Tia!" I said, louder this time. Tia opened her eyes a little, lowering her weapon as she realized what she was doing.

    "Eva!" Tia said, accusing me like I was a villain, which I suppose I was. "You can't scare me like that!" She pointed a disappointed finger at me.

    At this point I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. Tia pushed me off the bed and I fell to the floor, rolling on the ground as I continued to crack up to the point of tears. I saw Tia roll her eyes and begin to brush her hair.

    When I had finally settled down, Tia invited me back onto her bed and we sat criss-cross-applesauce across from each other. I looked around, smiling to myself. Tia's room was the best. She had a huge bed, a corner desk and a beanbag next to it. Across from her bed was a bay window, the windowsill and walls surrounding it littered with probably a hundred or more Polaroids of her and her friends. I was featured in almost every one.

    The most fascinating thing in the whole room was truly the number of Polaroids scattered about. They were dated at the bottom in a rainbow of Sharpie colors, beginning as early as when she and I were seven or eight. These pictures could captivate my attention for hours at a time. Since the people featured in them were not physically present, I couldn't see their clocks. It was sort of how everyone else saw each other, or at least I assumed. It wasn't like I could tell anyone, even Tia. It wasn't like their faces looked totally different, or that they suddenly looked like aliens, but it was just that looking at people in pictures made me feel lighter, like I had no responsibility to them. These moments, captured in time, were preserved from just a split second when everything was well. I didn't have to help with my "gift" in the array of smiling faces I saw on Tia's wall. It was peaceful.

    "Earth to Eva," Tia said, waving her hand in front of my face. I had totally spaced out.

    "Whoops," I shook my head and crossed my legs further under me. "How was vacation?"

    Tia turned away with a small smile, avoiding eye contact. "It was... good."

    "And his name?" I rolled my eyes.

    "Jason-" I scrunched up my nose at this, to which Tia groaned. "Eva, get over it. It was a long time ago."

    "Too soon," I said, remembering the heartache that poor third grade Eva had gone through with the memory of her first love: Jason Yard.