Blue Howard (boyxboy)

7up and 7down part 1

There is a slight pause, and then a wide grin appears on his face like he’s discovered the moon, and I think, god no, another one of his brilliant plans?

I remember we had a scavenger hunt, when I was still in high school. And although everything we had to do was written on the paper, things didn’t go exactly as planned. That was the day my nemesis asked the girl I liked out on the date, and she went, too. That was also the day I walked out on her because I couldn’t take being the other guy. The secret admirer always came first. The mystery was wondrous, and she wanted to discover her fairytale.

I wasn’t enough for her. I had never been enough.

“It’s quite simple,” Anton begins to explain his plan. And before I stop him, I want to hear it out. If there is a plan, I want to think of all the things that can go wrong, and then ruin it before he can actually bring the plan to life. “We need help, though.” That doesn’t make me feel better about it.

“So we get someone to help us, then make a mix tape,” he starts, “put all kinds of weird songs on there; sometime before that we have to find out whose party it is; then we sneak in to the house and insert the mix tape, turn it up to full volume, and make sure to hit play when the first groups of people arrive.” He turns to look at me, his eyes glistening with excitement, whereas, I’m not so sure about this.

“Have you done anything like this before?” I ask, and he shakes his head, I sigh. “It’s not a good plan.”

“What? I thought it was brilliant!” he looks disappointed, staring at the floor, sitting on my bed. “We could make a mix tape of love songs. We’d remove the button, so they can’t turn the volume down...”

“As good as it sounds, they can just pull the plug, and call someone to bring his lap top, and connect to the speakers,” I lay all the plot holes to the table, and with every new one, he shrinks down more.

“Fuck, I didn’t realize,” he mumbles, disappointed in himself.

“Yeah, well, it usually is that everything sounds better in your head,” I shrug and go sit down next to him. I nudge him with my elbow. “But we can still make that mix CD, if you want to.”

“You’d do that for me?” he asks with a puppy dog look on his face, and whimpers. I cover his face with the palm of my hand.

“Get out of here,” I chuckle, and Anton falls on his back. “Next time you think of a plan, don’t. You’re not very good at them.” I stand up and glance at him. He’s lying on the bed, supporting his upper body by placing his hands on both sides, holding his head up, so he won’t hit it against the wall. He kicks his shoes together and smirks.

“But I’m good with mix tapes,” he says and winks. And it’s true, so I feel the need to find Jocelyn.

She’s not outside, and she’s not in the cafeteria. Anton wants to give up on the search party, but I keep pulling to move his feet. It’s not like there’s anything else to do. So we go to the library.

There are a few people, some of them reading, some of them writing on their lap tops, and the library lady sitting behind her desk. It’s weird to be standing at the door of the library when I’m nowhere near to being the guy who reads, or even researches for his essays.

Anton brows are furrowed, and it looks like he has no idea, either, what to do in that place.

“It’s like a whole new world,” he whispers, leaning a bit closer to me. I bite my lip and start walking towards the aisles. They provide the perfect opportunity to disappear in between them and give the camouflage you need, so people don’t notice you. Anton follows me.