The Bucket List

18 (colby's pov)

"Good morning, brother," Jake said.

"It's 3pm, Jake," I replied with a laugh.

"Well I just woke up, so it's morning for me," he answered. He walked over and sat down at the kitchen table next to me. "Sam said you need help with something?"

"Oh, yeah. It's for Rose," I said.

"Ah, you want a cute way to ask her out, huh?" Jake asked.

"Maybe," I replied.

"Well I'm here to help, you little pansy," said Jake.

"Dude," I said.

"Let me have fun with this," he replied.

"Okay, okay," I sighed. "You got any ideas?"

"Does she like big flashy stuff or subtle shit?" he asked, wandering over to the fridge.

"I'm guessing subtle," I replied.

"Hm...," he trailed off. He crinkled a wrapper before closing the fridge to reveal a slice of cheese in his hand. He came back over to the table and started to eat it. "Cheese is otherworldly, bro."

"What does this have to do with Rose?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Girlfriend planning," Jake said. "Sorry, I forgot."

"You have the attention span of a goldfish," I said.

"Do we have any goldfish? Sam usually buys Cheez its when he goes shopping but goldfish would slap right now," said Jake.

"Oh my god," I mumbled. This was going to take forever.

"Write her a song," said Jake. "Or custom order a fortune cookie with the question inside. Or make a crossword puzzle. Make a scavenger hunt. Ask it in front of everyone at the party. Take her on a date and ask her at the end. Steal her phone and change your name to 'my boyfriend'. Hire a mariachi band. Post a picture of you guys on Instagram with a caption that says something like 'my girl' and wait for her to ask you about it. Get flowers. Wait on her porch for when she gets home and have a little present for her with a note."

I stared at Jake for a second.

"What?" he asked.

"How do you go from eating a plain slice of cheese to pulling all of these mostly genius romantic ideas out of your ass?" I asked.

"I don't know. I just have a bunch of ideas because I like surprising Tara," he shrugged.

"Well that's fucking adorable," I said.

"Hey, you're the softie right now. Not me," Jake said.

"I'm definitely not getting a fucking band or asking her in front of everyone," I decided.

"You could take her to where you met. That's always a cute spot," he said.

"Not in our case," I muttered.

"Hey, how did you guys meet? I know you decided to do this whole bucket list thing, but you never really told us why," he said.

"Well... you remember when Gage was visiting, right? And how he stayed at that hotel?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Jake.

"Well Aryia called to tell me that he hit 200k subs, but the reception in the hotel was ass. I went up to the roof since Gage's room was on the top floor and I saw Rose standing on the edge of the top of the building. I don't know how I knew what she was thinking about doing, but I did," I said.

"Oh, shit! Was she going to... you know...," Jake trailed off.

"Yeah. So I pulled her off and made a deal to finish a bucket list to help her see that life is worth it," I said.

"What do you mean that's not cute? That's adorable. You saved her life! Have her come up there and ask her then," said Jake, slapping the table. "Man, I am good."

"And so humble," I laughed.

"No need to thank me, brother," he said.

"Thank you, man," I said.

"I got you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go bother Corey until he agrees to teach me the Renegade," he said, standing up.

"You're a bit late for that trend, bud," I replied.

"Art has no time limit," he said.

"Can't argue with that, I guess," I said.

"No sir, you cannot," he responded. He pat my back a couple times before spinning on his foot and making his way to Corey's room.

"Was he any help?" Sam asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Surprisingly, yes," I said.

"I told you. Dude's a total romantic," he replied.

"No kidding," I said.

"So what's the plan?" he asked.

"I'm going to take her up to where we met and ask her there," I replied.

"Isn't that a little... I don't know, grim?" he asked.

"I think I could turn it into more of a sweet thing," I said.

"You're right. You could spin it around to make it a whole 'I'm glad I found you when you needed me' type of thing," he agreed.

"Exactly," I said.

"When are you going to do it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet. I want it to be right, you know?" I said.

"Yeah, I get that. Don't want to rush it," he nodded.

"Is when she gets back too soon?" I asked.

"Hm... maybe? I don't know, it's kind of a case by case thing. You're the only one who can really know the answer to that question," he said. "But she'll be gone for a few days. Just think about it."

"Yeah, I will. Thank you, man," I replied.

"Of course, brother," he answered.