The Bucket List [ON HOLD]

The Bucket List - Part 6

          Lacy finally gave a shuddering gasp, coming back to us in that moment. “Are you out of your mind?” she asked Carmen in a trembling, awed voice. The petite strawberry-haired girl was still shaking so badly that Chance was supporting most of her weight.

          Carmen gave a scathing look. “What? She’s the biggest brat I’ve ever seen, she deserved what she got. Did you even see that? She wasn’t much better even after I put her down.”

          “But Carmen, you could’ve killed her!” Lacy choked out. The rest of us looked at Carmen, uncomfortable now that we’d seen this side of her. I’d always thought that she was a bit unstable, but not to the extent of nearly chucking a stranger’s kid over a mall balcony.

          “Nope. There was a ledge two feet down and below that a mesh netting. The mall security put it there to prevent people from using that as their suicide spot and freaking out the customers.”

          “But still!” Lacy persisted, but I could sense that the rest of us had relaxed. There hadn’t ever been real danger after all.

          “Yeah, but still,” Greg muttered, sliding a sideways glance at the calm, gorgeous girl, “remind me never to make any real babies with you.”

          To everyone’s surprise, Chance let out a snort which turned into hysterical laughter. The rest of us stood there, staring, as Chance was forced to sit on a bench, helpless from laughing so hard.

          “Oh, come on,” he gasped through chuckles, “she was never gonna die. Did you see everyone’s faces?”

          And then he was off again, sliding off the bench to roll helplessly on the floor. People walking by gave us strange looks, but I could feel the corners of my lips twitching. First Greg joined in, then Ian and then I was laughing too. Soon all six of us were in hysterics, the leftover panic and terror fuelling us on for a good ten minutes. It didn’t help that we chose to watch the video of it, which kept us laughing for another half hour.

          In the end, we decided to keep both the videos of Ian’s encounter with the toddler and Carmen’s attempt to reform the girl for memories’ sake.

          Breathing deeply, we all sat on the couches and benches in the little waiting area of the mall. “Now what?” We all looked at Ian.

          He gave another breath, holding the camera. “I don’t think the food court was such a good idea, after all. Let’s split up into our pairs, and try our luck wherever we can, all right? Meet back here in an hour.”

          We all agreed, albeit a little reluctantly. Chance came over to me, pulling out his phone.

          “What’s that for?” I asked, frowning as we chose our direction and set off.

          “To have it on record if we really get lucky,” Chance grinned, flinging his arm around my shoulder. I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face, relieved that he seemed back to his normal, carefree self and not distant with me anymore about my blow-up at him. Maybe this whole bucket list really would bring us closer together. True, under extremely insane circumstances, but still.

          To keep up my appearance of being unaffected, I sniffed. “Chance, if we get lucky, we won’t need to record anything.”

          Chance turned his face towards me, flashing his lop-sided grin. “Aw, c’mon Allie. How can you pass up a chance at witnessing someone poop their pants?”