The Cascading Waves of Caden Lee

01

Caden Lee

Scarlett's a cheerleader, a good one at that. Not a snobby one like cliche high school movies make it out to be, but she was confident. And I liked that. I wasn't a football player like one might assume if they knew Scarlett was in a relationship, but I was a jock.

It all started with a project, teeth-rottenly cliche, and so began the beginning of our relationship. Hidden with twists-and-turns and seemingly hopeless endings, I don't think I would've ever expected our ending to be this.

But it was. And the beginning of the end was the Locker Project. We definitely never classified as a fairy-tail romance.

Hospital rooms aren't my thing.

It's the beginning.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I'd like to say I'm not a stereotype dumb jock. I'm smart, enough to pass my classes with a breeze, and no extra time is spent studying. So I spend it with my friends.

I have two true friends in my life. Ashton and Joseph, friends since the 2nd grade and going strong. We fight, but we always make up and I love them with all my heart. I don't know what'd I do without them.

We spend overwhelming amounts of time walking to the local 7-11 and back.

"Dude, you need to watch where you're going." Joseph mutters, his head turned to face the car that speeds down past the highway. And Ashton Williamson stands in the midst of the chaos. He's soaked in dirty rain water.

"That car just splashed a shit ton of water onto me! No! Guys, I'm wearing white! This isn't funny guys cmon, I'm wearing white!"

His outrage is drowned out by the loud laughter of me and Joseph, the droplets of rain falling from the angry clouds has our hair soaked and shaking water everywhere as our bodies begin to shake with the force of our laughs.

We both can't help but be glad we weren't the ones on the far side of the highway.

"Ash! It's just water it probably won't stain! You're fine!" I squeeze out as my stomach starts to hurt and my smile grows so big it aches on my face.

"You know you guys would react the same if it happened to you!"

"But it didn't." Me and Joseph somehow say in sync, weird in retrospect but a regular occurrence between the three of us. Our laughter dies down, simmered into soft chuckles here and there as Ashton groans and turns around. All of our clothes are beginning to get soaked anyways.

It's a Saturday night, and the three of us have slept over at my house once more. We all live pretty close, a few blocks away from each other. We practically live at each-others houses.

"I don't even have that much money, I wanted to get more stuff than usual." Ash mutters, throwing his head back with a groan.

"Get a job." Joseph mutters, and I nod in agreement. Ashton likes to complain about his lack of money but never takes action to earn more.

"No."

"Not even for money?"

"Maybe someday."

Joseph nods sarcastically, raising his eyebrow and facing forward once more. The beeping of racing cars and the blinding lights of the city surround us.

"I'm gonna get sour patch kids." I mutter. It's my favorite, has been for years.

"Who could've guessed!" Joseph mocks in an overly-sarcastic voice, and I shoot a glare at him. Joseph is overloaded with sarcasm, I don't think I've ever heard him not say something stupidly sarcastic for longer than 10 minutes. We've known each-other for 8 years.

"They're good!" Comes my defense, true as ever, Sour Patch Kids has remained my favorite candy for years. I had a snow cone with the flavor of the blue-raspberry one in the seventh grade, and it was so good I fell in love with the candy as well.

"I think I'll get...uhh, uhm, I don't know."

Ashton's indecisive.

"Maybe I'll try something new!" Comes his conclusion after a long minute of "hmm"'s.

"Don't you always?" The remaining two of us say, in sync once again.

"Not always you buffoons."

"No, but, what even is a buffoon? Like it's an insult, sure, but how are we being insulted?"

The other two look at me, and it's clear they haven't thought about this either.

"Kinda sounds like an instrument." Joseph says, and Ashton must seem to come to that conclusion too because he nods his head a little too aggressively and replies with a, "like something similar to a trumpet?"

Despite this conversation making no sense whatsoever, If this were a cartoon, 3 lightbulbs would've popped above our heads right now.

"Trumpets kinda sound cool though...imagine being insulted with a word giving off the vibe of a clarinet." I smile, blinking my eyes shut a few times to clear the droplets from my eyelashes.

"The clarinet's definitely a bitch."

"She just never shuts up." Ash adds on, his blue eyes crinkling in the corners as he giggles at his own joke.

I look up, and there, in all its glory, sits a run down 7-11 by a sketchy alleyway. It's filled with the infected needles of dozens of junkies hooked on the poison slowly destroying them. I always make sure to glance down the alley a few times as I walk past it in order to not die.

The door jingles, the familiar 7-11 tune I've grown used to hearing, and the running of the slurpee machine fills the stores 1 am silence. The cashier at the checkout is slumped over and red-eyed.

I make my way towards the candy aisle, snatching a grab of Sour Patch Kids while Joseph heads towards the chips and Ashton wonders the store aimlessly. Next is the drinks, the refrigerated air chills me and my soaked-through clothing as I open the refrigerated drinks. Goosebumps sprout onto my skin and I grab a glass bottle of lemonade as fast as I can in order to get away from the cold air.

The three of us gather together once more, Chips, drinks, Candy and an unusual Grape-flavored wafer from Ashton fills our hands as we step up to the cashier. His red-rimmed eyes catch onto us, his head bobbing and hair messy as he rings our stuff up. He's high, and it's easy to tell.

Our stuff gets handed back to us, and with a "have a good night" mumbled from the ginger cashier, we exit with the jingle of the 7-11 door.

Our feet splash onto the flooding sidewalk, just as it's done many times before. Through rain, sunshine, storm and snow we've made this walk. Just the three of us, countless dollars spent and full cycles of emotions have been shared here.

Never two, only three, since the beginning. Our routine is repetitive yet comforting. I wouldn't give it up for the world. We have a car now, it being February of Junior year and all, but we choose to walk still.

The city lights and the honking of aggressive drivers surround us as we walk home.