The Bucket List

8

"It's up! His video is up!" Jess squealed, running into my house.

"I wonder what my doorbell sounds like. You know, since you never bother to USE IT!" I joked.

"Oh, hush. This house is giant. You'd have to walk a half a mile to come get me anyway," she replied. "Now let's watch it. I waited all day at work and didn't watch it on break so we could see it together."

"Well I appreciate that. Come on, there's a Roku in the living room with YouTube on it," I said. We made our way into the living room and I let Jess pull up the video. It'd only been posted for a few hours, but it had over 300k views. Jesus, I really was friends with famous people.

We watched the video through, laughing at Reggie's genius editing.

"Okay, now we have to read the comments. There's no way they're not talking about us since we're new," said Jess. She took the remote and began to scroll down through the comments. "Oh, jeez. Not unexpected, I guess."

"Huh?" I asked.

"Look at these. 'OMG! Did you see how Colby put his arm around Rose? They're totally dating!' 'Why have we never seen Rose before?' 'Jess is so badass.' Why yes, random stranger on the internet. Yes I am," she said. "Oh boy. You checked your phone recently?"

"No, why?" I asked.

"Because someone plugged your Instagram and Twitter in here," she said.

"What? How'd they find it?" I asked.

"Never underestimate the power of stan Twitter, Rose," said Jess.

"Stan twitter? What's that?" I asked.

"You don't want to know," she replied.

"Okay, I'll take your word on that," I said. I heard a loud chime echo through the house.

"Ah. So that would be what my doorbell sounds like," I said. I got up off the couch and made my way to the front door, then opened it to reveal a stressed-out looking Colby.

"I am so sorry, I probably should have warned you about everything. Have you seen the video? Of course you've seen the video. But have you seen the comments? Please don't read those. I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything, people just get a little riled up whenever I put a girl in my videos. I shouldn't have put my arm around you like that, I'm so sorry, I just—,"

"Dude, shut up," I laughed.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Chill out. It's not a big deal. I know you didn't mean any harm. Breathe for God's sake, you said all of that in one breath," I said. After saying that, he looked noticeably less stressed.

"Oh thank god. Can I give you a hug? I'm going to give you a hug," he said. He stepped inside and wrapped his arms around me. Holy shit did this man smell good.

"Have you finally admitted your burning love for my sweet Rosalina?" Jess asked, joining us in the entry.

"Rosalina?" he asked.

"That's my full name," I explained.

"Hey, answer the question," Jess said.

"No, Jess, I have not. Because I don't have a burning love for Rose," he said.

"You keep telling yourself that, buddy," she chuckled.

"Give the guy a break, J. He was practically shaking in fear when I opened the door," I said.

"I'd also like to apologize to you. Both of your Instagrams and Twitters got leaked in the comments. You should probably switch to private," he said.

"No, no. I was born to be famous," Jess said dramatically.

"Well, yours isn't as bad as Rose's. Her shit's blowing up. Every time I refresh her pages there's tons of new followers," he said.

"So you were stalking me too, then?" I asked.

"No! I just... okay, sort of. Yeah," he said.

"It's fine," I laughed. "I'd be lying if I said I haven't looked at your social medias, too."

"Okay, good. So we're good?" he asked.

"Yes, we're good," I laughed.

"Alright, then it's time to check 'destroy something' off of our list," he said. He pulled the small notebook out of his pocket, opened it up, and handed me a pen. "Go on," he urged. I stared down at the paper. After I checked this off, I only had 14 more things to do before I was allowed to die. My life had certainly gotten better, but I wasn't sure that a giant house and a ton of money was enough to change my mental stability.

"Perfect. Do you want to die any less, now?" Jess asked.

"Not particularly," I mumbled.

"See? Shitty plan, like I said," Jess said to Colby.

"We've still got fourteen more. That's plenty of opportunities. Did destroying the car at least make you feel a little bit better?" he asked.

"A little bit, I guess," I said.

"See? Not shitty," Colby said to Jess.

"I hate you both," I said.

"You love us. Just not as much as Colby loves you," Jess said.

"Jess! Stop it," I whined.

"Not till he admits it," she replied.

"You're exhausting," I said.

"No, I'm fun and spontaneous. There's a difference," she laughed.

"Whatever," I chuckled.

"So what do you want to knock off of the list next?" Colby asked.

"What, are you in a hurry?" I laughed.

"Yes. To get to the 'fall in love' option," Jess said.

"Jess!" Colby and I scolded at the same time.

"Aw, how cute. You're even getting mad at me together," she replied.

"How about the tattoo?" Colby asked, moving on from Jess's comments.

"I need to think about what I want first. It's got to mean something to me, you know?" I said.

"Yes, of course," Colby said. "Hm... well what about the roller coaster, then? We could go to Six Flags tomorrow?"

"Yes," said Jess.

"I don't think he was asking you," I said.

"That's okay, I answered anyway," retorted Jess.

"You seem emotionally draining," said Colby.

"If you were not Colby Brock, I might just take offense to that," Jess responded.