H2O | ✔

Chapter Thirteen : Umbrellas

Xander

6 weeks after Mesi woke up...

"The meeting for Nonfiction Book Club will be moved to tomorrow after school in the library. The tutoring center will be open today from 4-6—"

I tuned out the announcements and instead focused on the doodle I was doodling on my English work. I couldn't tell what it was yet, I was just letting my hand have free reign. I liked doing that, seeing where pen and paper would take me if I let it. In a way, it let me take a look into whatever it was that was really bothering me deep down.

The shaped underneath the tip of my pen was beginning to take shape. It was an umbrella.

Why was I drawing an umbrella?

I was racking my brain for possible answers when the bell rang and I was forced to pack up and head to AP European History. Joy.

"What do you think of this song?" Becca asked, shoving an earbud in my ear. She and I walked to third period together every day, since our classes were down the hall from each other.

I let the notes ring out in my skull as my feet skipped every other tan tile on the floor before I fully realized what I was listening to.

"I don't wanna be a victim of authority, I'll always be a part of the minority..."

It was a 5 Seconds of Summer song, one of Mesi's favorites. And it was that song that brought made me remember why umbrellas were so important.

There was this day, when Sam was still alive, that Mesi begged him to take her to the beach. He argued that the forecast was calling for rain, but she refused to listen. Instead, she hopped in his car and threatened to drive herself there. Sam just laughed and relented.

He ended up calling me and guilting me into coming, saying I'd missed the last time he asked to hang out and that I was probably just doing some stupid math thing anyway. If by stupid math thing, you mean watching the latest Vihart video on the controversy of Pi verses Tau, then yes, that was exactly what I was doing.

So the three of us took a random trip to the beach. Mesi and Sam were in the front of the car, holding hands and giving each other kisses on the cheek at every single stoplight. I almost puked about fifty times. I mean, couldn't they have saved the gushy stuff for when I wasn't around?

I spent the ride staring out at the dismal day, wondering when I would get my best friend back. I liked Mesi, from what I knew of her, but I also missed Sam.

The sky was covered by clouds, not an inch of blue to be seen. The whole world felt grey, as if mirroring my thoughts and feelings. We were the only car on the road, proportionally lonely to how I was in the back seat—all alone.

It was pouring by the time we arrived. But Mesi being Mesi, jumped out of the car and ran onto the wet sand, hair dancing in the wind. It was a sight to see. She smiled and laughed and stared up at the sky as if we'd just had a drought and this rain was a godsend. To her, it might've been. You never really knew what was going through Mesi's head.

Sam was just as crazy and followed soon after, picking her up and spinning her around. As he brought her back down, their lips met and her hands reached into his hair and all of the sudden I was nonexistent.

I felt a pang in my heart. I shouldn't have come, I should've made up some excuse and let them be a happy couple on their own. Tagging along as the third wheel was never any fun and I should've learned that by then. I mentally kicked myself for thinking this time would be any different than any other time they invited me along. For hoping that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't feel so inconsequential.