Meet On The Ledge || Greta Van Fleet

Chapter 12

    I stayed with the boys for the rest of the week, staying closer to Josh, Sam, and Daniel with the fear that if I was near Jake for too long I would become sad. I stayed closer to Josh than the rest. He would sneak into Ronnie's room every couple of nights and we would lay on the bed in silence, but it wasn't awkward, it was a good silence. He knew how to calm down without talking and for that I would be eternally grateful. It wasn't just that he was sort of like my protector, but I found myself realizing things about him I hadn't before. When he laughs he kind of scrunches up his nose and shakes his head. He read to me one night, pulling out the little book. It was Walden and he knew I loved Thoreau, I knew he loved him too. "Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the world."
   
    Finally, I returned home much to my dismay. My mother gave me a big hug saying how much she missed me, my brother apologized profusely, and my father.. well.. my father sat in the den reading through old books. Dinner time came and he stayed that way. "So honey, how was the week? Did you make sure you told Karen thank you from us? Oh what a saint she is."

    "Yeah she knows. And as for the week, it was... average."

    "Anything interesting in school?"

    "Not really, my art classes have been going well, but the rest are just kind of ehh." I could only ever say that to my mom. If my dad had heard, he would have put me in extra AP classes. You weren't even allowed to be in APs when you were a sophomore, but somehow he convinced the school board I was smart enough.

    The weeks went by like this. Simple, pretty boring, but hope for the future was brewing inside of me. Josh, Jake, Kenz, and Hannah graduated at the end of the year and it was all nice, but I just wanted to go with them, wherever they were going.

    "You okay Mags?" Ronnie said to me, finally in her senior year, while me only in my junior.

    "Yeah, a little sad everyone's leaving, but yeah." I thought about Jake, who was going off to some community college and I thought even more about Josh, who was going to try and make more films. Even with them around, it felt like they were going to be gone.

    "Okay, we need to do something about your attitude missy." She said, holding up Josh's old Altoid box.

    "Where did you get that??" I asked, wonderment in my eyes. "Won't Josh be mad???"

    "Hey. What Josh doesn't know won't hurt him." She laughed at she opened up the box, taking out the weed and rolling papers. I knew it was a bad idea, Josh would find out that his pot was missing or at least dented and he would get mad. "If he finds out, we'll just tell him that you were feeling sad. If he thinks you were the one who took it, he won't freak out." She was right, I had always hit a sweet spot with Josh, but the last thing I wanted was for him to freak out on me.

    Soon, Ronnie had rolled up four, very messy, but very effective joints. We went out on the roof, watching her parents roll away in the car to yet another graduation party. The air was hot, but we didn't mind. We sparked it, smoking one, then another, then another. I'm not quite sure how we did it, but we did and I was now in space. "Do your teeth feel big, my teeth feel huuuge." I told her.

    "Mags look at that star, isn't that the best star you've ever seen?" I giggled and soon we were both in fits of laughter.

    "Ron, we should steal Josh's pot more often." She nodded her head, emphasizing every time it came down. We went inside after carefully placing the can back in Josh's room with the fourth joint in it and a note saying 'Sowwy, we love youuuuu!"

    The kitchen of the Kiszka residence was the best thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. "UGGGH peanut butter, get in my belllllyyyy!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs causing Ronnie to break into an even heavier laughter than the constant one we were already in. "Look, look," I stuck two pretzels in my mouth, "I'm a walrus!"