The Three Of Us

Chapter Thirty

                                                                                   Avery

  Life is like a simple percentage question in sixth grade math. “If one half of the Earth’s population is awed by how the world works, what percentage of the other half thinks it’s just a big load of nothing?” This would mean  that fifty percent of the world have experienced one of those moments like no other. A family member has survived a deadly disease, after years and years of trying; you’re finally holding your little baby in your arms, etcetera.

  And then there is the other fifty percent, the answer to our question, who have been basically shying away from the wonderful things the world can offer. It’s as if they’re living in a little hole, which keeps them from seeing the sunlight of the world. They never experience the glorious way you feel when you have your first kiss, or when you win first place in a cross-country race.

  However, I bet if they at least just tried to reach out and grasp to the amazing things the Earth has to offer; the fifty percent of people who love the world, could slowly become one hundred.

  “Popcorn?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”

  “Of course; it just adds to the effect,” Ray, Ronnie’s friend, said to me as she walked into her living room with a big bowl of popcorn on her hands. She flopped down on her couch next Ronnie and shoved some of the popcorn in her mouth.

  Asher, who was setting up the “proof” with Ray’s VCR machine that had had to be hooked up to the TV, looked at the two girls. “Honestly, I think we have enough “effect” for a lifetime at the moment.”

  Even as Ronnie wiped away a few stray tears, she managed to chuckle. Seeing Ronnie cry had, truthfully, made me feel quite odd. I guess you could say crying girls were my weakness in a way.

  She nodded her head. “Let’s get this over with though.”

  Asher spent a few more minutes fiddling with the VCR, and then, once it finally began to work, he came to join us at the seats. The short little video went on, and we were greeted by the familiar face of young Ronnie once again.

  Ray and Ronnie awed at young Ronnie, laughed at Ronnie when she corrected Janet, literally went insane when little Asher bombarded her (this just made the man himself blush like mad), and awed once more when they saw the infant version of myself and how Ronnie said she loved me.

  I looked at the two females, Ronnie mostly, only to see that Ray had tears in her eyes and that Ronnie looked shocked.

  “Thoughts?” I asked her, leaning forward and leaning my arms onto my legs.

  Ronnie opened her mouth to answer, when I felt my phone in my back pocket vibrate slightly. I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. It said that I had one new text message and I pressed the ‘View’ button. In big bold, white letters, the font I had chosen, I saw:

  “Did you take dad’s car?”

  I looked at who had sent it, and my eyes went wide when I saw that it was my mother. I gulped and stood up immediately. “We need to leave,” I told Asher and Ronnie. “Now.”

  “What’s wrong?” Asher asked curiously.

  I threw my phone to him, and as he caught it I explained, “My parents just got home… to find no car in the driveway. We have to get home and fast.”

  “She doesn’t seem mad though,” Asher noticed as he eyed the text. “She just asked if you took the car.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you think she’ll say when she finds out that you can’t drive, and neither can Ronnie?!”