In The End (On Hold)

t e n

•unedited
  •banner by me
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t e n

December 29, 2014

"Mason?" I heard my mom ask as she entered my room, a bag in her hand.

I looked up from where I sat at my desk, drawing a picture of the sketch on my laptop in front of me. "Yes?" I asked and got up to meet her at the door.

She handed the bag to me. "I got you a book." She smiled to herself so widely it looked like she was accepting an award for best mother. I smiled out of gratitude for the book and adoration.

I looked at the plain black hardcover and the title, my eyes skimming the description of the book before shaking my head. There was no need to read the synopsis, Mom knew my taste in books.

"Thank you, Mom." I kissed her cheek when she declared she was going out to pick up Tommy from a friend's house. I set the book back in the bag and placed it next to my spot where I was drawing. I would start the book after I finish the drawing.

Minutes later, I was just finishing the drawing when a notification popped up on my laptop screen. Something about not being connected to the internet. I moved the cursor over to the connection option and clicked to reconnect, but there was no options to choose from at all. I furrowed my eyebrows and stood up to walk over to my light switch, but the light wouldn't turn on.

Either a power outage or I have to check the fuse box.

Before wasting my time by going outside to check the fuses, I walked to my balcony to see the no lights on in any nearby houses and the kids already outside on their bikes. I sighed before whipping my phone out and asked Matt and Callum if they wanted to meet up. Matt replied that he couldn't because his mom wanted to spend quality family time now that there was no electricity. Callum never replied. I texted Athena when I came to the conclusion Callum phone probably died around the same time of the black-out, and was now crying because he couldn't charge it.

Thankfully, Athena replied she would walk over there because she wanted to walk, and would be there in a few. I decided I would listen to music on my balcony while waiting for her, but soon rolled my eyes and gave up all hope when the crappy, cheap earphones I had decided to temporarily replace with my broken expensive ones projected a beautiful Ed Sheeran song. I closed my music app and looked at the time, wondering what time Athena would come.

Searching for a pass time, I remembered the book Mom had gotten me but quickly shut the idea down when I saw the sky was darkening and remembering all the times my mom warned me about reading in the dark. I sighed and looked at the sky, noticing the already always-visible stars were more prominent now that the whole town was most likely taking part in the power outage. Staring at the stars, I looked at the roof and got an idea.

My balcony lay on the roofing of the first floor that jutted out of the house and lower than the top roof. So I climbed that first roofing before jumping on to the second roof. I surprised myself at how easy that came to be. A couple minutes after of watching the stars and listening to the music the next door neighbors were playing outside, I heard Athena's voice through the window below me. "Mason?"

It took me a while to get back down on my balcony because going down on the slant of the roof felt more dangerous than climbing it. But when I finally stepped foot on my balcony, I saw Athena looking at the new book Mom got me. I walked into the room and she still hadn't noticed I was here, so I said, "We'll read it later," because I could tell she looked interested.

She jumped and dropped the book back on the desk. "I almost gave birth!" she cried, causing a laugh to slip from me. "Where'd you come from?" she asked looking around the room. She was by my bedroom door, so if I came in through there, she would have known.

I point up at the ceiling. "The roof. Wanna come?"

"Uh, sure," she agrees, ignoring her hesitance when she heard the idea of coming to the roof with me.

I held my hand out, smiling. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't fall."

After leading her up the roof and making sure she wasn't going to fall, I quickly walked back into my room to grab a large blanket because even in my sweater, I was freezing, so I could only imagine how cold Athena was because she didn't have a sweater. I came back out. "Catch the blanket!" After hearing an 'okay', I threw the blanket towards her general direction before climbing back up. She was already bundled up in one half of the blanket, the other half beside her, waiting for me.

I smiled and sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders unconsciously.

She leaned her head against my shoulder before asking, "What do you want to do after high school?" Her voice was so low, I almost didn't catch what she said.

"I haven't really thought about that." It was true. I don't, because once I do I'll want to keep living, and die when I'm old. But then I'll get sicker and become even more sad because I had this hope in me that maybe I'll survive this, and that maybe I can die when I get old.

She buried her face in my shoulder when a gust of wind blew by, and I tried to ignore the smile that tugged at my lips. "My mom wants me to go to college, but I really just want to travel."

"If you ever go to California, Modesto was going to name the city after a guy named William C. Ralston, but the guy was too modest. So, instead, they named it Modesto, Spanish for modest."

She chuckled. "I've never there."

I smiled, watching the stars. "Me neither, we'll go there someday." Then I mentally winced, crossing the rule of thinking of the future I couldn't have.

So we lay there for what seems like hours but is only ten minutes, laying down somewhere along the line and eventually falling asleep. And in those ten minutes, I know I like her.