Dead!

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The next morning, Adam and I met up at the bakery. "It's so nice to see you again Ivy," he said as he got in line for food.

"It's nice to see you too," I said. "What are you getting?"

"Probably just some tea and a bagel," Adam said. "What about you?"

"I'm thinking about getting a muffin and then going next door to get a mocha frappuccino," I said.

"That sounds nice," Adam said. "I love breakfast food. It's my favorite meal of the day."

"I just like having coffee in the mornings," I said.

"I'm not a huge coffee person," Adam said. "I prefer tea."

"I don't usually drink tea," I said. "There's not enough chocolate."

"There are chocolate teas," Adam said. "I could give you some of mine."

"That would be nice," I said. "I could try that."

"You really are obsessed with chocolate, aren't you?" Adam said.

"I guess so," I replied.

We got to the front of the line, and both Adam and I ordered. Once we got our food, Adam asked, "Do you want to sit outside?"

"Sure, that sounds nice," I said. I ran off to get my mocha frappuccino, and Adam found a table outside the restaurant.

"How was dinner with your friend?" Adam asked me.

"It was okay," I said. "I told Samantha about you."

"Samantha? I knew someone in high school named Samantha, or at least I think that was her name," Adam said. "I don't remember all that well."

"She said that she remembered you from high school too," I said.

"Really? I didn't even know that she died...wait, she is a girl, right? I was always a little confused about that," Adam said.

"Samantha's just as much of a girl as I am," I said. "Anyways, she was saying all of these awful things about you."

"Like what?" Adam asked.

"She said that you were an alcoholic," I said.

"Listen, I made some really bad decisions when I was younger," Adam said. "That doesn't necessarily affect who I am now."

"Tell me everything," I said.

Adam sighed and said, "I guess it all started at a party that my friend dragged me to freshman year. I've always been a bit of an introvert, so I didn't exactly want to be there, and I only found out after we got there that they were serving beer. That was the first time that I ever drank anything alcoholic. It didn't taste great, but I liked the feeling that it gave me."

"Okay," I said. "Go on."

"I started going to more of those sorts of parties, and I kept drinking because that was the only way that I could bring myself to get out on the dance floor," Adam said. "At some point, it got out of control. I would come home drunk and then have a massive hangover at school. Sometimes, I couldn't even go to school without having a few drinks before. I knew it was wrong, but I felt like I needed it."

"How did you die?" I asked. "Samantha said that it was from a car crash."

"That's right," Adam said. "I couldn't find the designated driver after our graduation party, so I drove home myself, even though I was completely wasted. Needless to say, I crashed my car and ended up here. Weirdly enough, all of my friends were alright. I was the only one who died. It's karma, I guess. Anyways, when I got here, the Celestial Bureaucracy decided that my drinking problem needed immediate attention, which in retrospect, it probably did. I met a lot of great people who helped me sober up, and right now, I'm still trying to turn my life around. If you're worried about being friends with me, then you shouldn't be. I'm better than I was then."

"That's good to hear, Adam," I said. "I'm glad that you were able to tell me about all of that. It means that you're getting better."

Adam smiled and said, "I guess so, or maybe I just replaced alcohol with tea," he said. "I'm not quite sure."

"Either way, it worked," I said.

"Thanks for listening to all of that, Ivy," Adam said. "It felt good to get it off of my chest."

"You're welcome," I said. That's two people now who think that I'm a good listener, I thought. Maybe I'm not as horrible as I thought that I was.

"You're just so kind," Adam said. "I wish that I could be more like you. Maybe that's what I'm striving for."

I laughed. "I'm not that nice," I said. "I think we have that in common, actually. We're both trying to improve on who we were when we were alive."

"What do you mean?" Adam asked. "You couldn't have done anything that bad."

I sighed. "I was one of the popular kids back in high school. I know that doesn't mean much on its own, but my clique liked to take advantage of that and harass other kids. We would spread all kinds of terrible rumors and say all of these awful things to other kids, and there are all kinds of things that I wish that I could take back. One of those kids finally snapped. Anthony brought a gun to school and killed the five kids who happened to be in the library that day. One of them was me."

Adam was shocked. "You couldn't have done that!" he exclaimed. "You're too nice."

"As I said, I'm trying to change who I was, just like you. The past is behind us now, so let's just move on," I said.

Adam took a bite out of his bagel and nodded. "I agree," he said. "All of that's over. We can't judge each other, because none of us are perfect."

"Exactly," I said. I decided to ask Adam what had been on my mind this whole time. "I have a quick question. Is this a date?"

Adam thought about it for a few seconds before saying, "I wasn't really thinking of it as one. We're just friends, after all."

I tried to hide my disappointment as I said, "Okay, that's fine. I was just curious."

Adam and I continued to chat for another few minutes before I realized that I was already late for work. Adam had to leave too, so we said our goodbyes before heading in opposite directions.

I could already tell that this was going to be a wonderful day.