Джей Эшер - The Future of Us

“Guys!” I say. “What’s going on?”

Tyson steps forward. “What we’re saying is, the night’s not over.”

“And this time, it’s going to be all four of us.” Kellan puts her hands on her hips. “ Just the four of us. We talked to your parents, and they’ve extended your curfew until one o’clock.”

I can’t believe it. “Seriously?”

Tyson nods toward Kellan. “The girl’s got charm.”

“Now we need to get Emma,” Kellan says.

When Graham brought me home, I noticed Emma’s car in her driveway. I looked up to her bedroom window, but the light was out.

“She went to sleep early,” I say.

Kellan raises her hands in mock frustration. “I don’t care! She doesn’t have a choice.”

“How are you going to get hold of her? You can’t call her this late.”

Tyson pulls a flashlight from his back pocket. “The four of us go way back,” he says. “I know how you and Emma used to communicate.”

Kellan picks up my sketchpad, then she pulls a marker from my desk, and starts writing a note.

Tyson walks to the bathroom, slides open the window, and shouts, “Emma! Wake the hell up and look outside!”

Kellan laughs as she tears the note out of the sketchpad. “Oh, there’s no way her mom heard that.”

I shake my head and follow my friends into the bathroom.

SOMEONE SHOUTED outside my window, pulling me out of my sleep.

The last thing I remember is my mom peeking into my room around eleven. I didn’t say anything as she kissed my cheek and then closed my door.

I stretch across to my nightstand and press the top of my alarm clock, lighting up the red numbers. It’s only 11:20 PM.

The voice isn’t as loud this time. “Hold it steady.”

Is that Tyson?

I push off my covers and walk to the window. When I look out, I cover my mouth so I don’t laugh. Tyson has his forehead pressed against the screen of Josh’s bathroom window. He’s holding a sheet of paper against the glass. Someone else in the bathroom is shining a light on the note. Thankfully, my pink binoculars are still in the top drawer of my desk.

When I lower the binoculars, Tyson waves and removes the note from the window.

“And I’m serious!” he shouts.

Kellan appears at the window with the flashlight shining beneath her chin. “We’re both serious!”

When Kellan and Tyson leave, Josh walks up to the window. He doesn’t say anything, but he smiles and shrugs his shoulders. Kellan pushes him out of the way, holds her wrist to the window, and points at her watch.

I give her a thumbs-up, wriggle into some clothes, and tiptoe downstairs.

TYSON’S TRUCK IS PARKED at the curb with him in the driver’s seat. Kellan is squeezed next to him, and Josh is standing outside holding the door open for me.

He smiles shyly as I hop in.

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze,” Tyson says.

Josh climbs in after me, but the door won’t close all the way.

“You’ll need to get squishy,” Kellan says.

I press as close to Kellan as I can. Josh slides over until our bodies touch from our shoulders down to our knees. When he slams the door shut, Tyson shifts into gear and the truck jolts forward. Josh lengthens the seatbelt before handing it to me. I stretch it across both our laps and buckle us in.

“Where are we headed?” Josh asks.

He had nothing to do with this? I glance over at Kellan, but she continues looking at the road with a smile.

“There’s only one thing we all need right now,” Tyson says.

He and Kellan throw their fists in the air and shout, “GoodTimez!”

I’VE NEVER BEEN to GoodTimez Pizza after hours, and it’s eerily quiet. Tyson entered the security code at the door and flipped on a few lights. Thankfully, he didn’t turn on the disco music.

Within minutes, Tyson and Kellan are having a heated competition over a game of Pac-Man. Kellan is gripping the joystick, shouting, “Suck it, ghosties!” every time she eats a power pellet. She’s wearing Josh’s sweatshirt, but I’m not going to ask if she found anything in the pocket. I’ll consider it a good sign that she still has it on.

I wander away from the arcade and sit in one of the dining booths. After a little bit, Josh slides in across from me. “We’ve got some weird friends.”

“True,” I say. “But the boy is weirder.”

“I’ll give you that,” he says. “And yet, I have a feeling the kidnapping was Kellan’s idea.”

“Did you have to sneak out, too?”

Josh shakes his head. “They talked my parents into letting me stay out until one.”

“No way!”

We don’t say anything for a minute, but it’s not awkward. It’s good to be with Josh again. Even if he’s with Sydney, we can still be friends.

Josh glances toward the arcade. It’s Tyson’s turn at the joystick now, with Kellan jumping around, shouting, “Get him, ghosties! Get him!”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Josh says, running his finger over a knick in the tabletop.

“What is it?”

He breathes in deep and then slowly exhales.

“If you want, I can go first,” I say. “Because I need to tell you something, too.”

He smiles. “I would love it if you went first.”

“It’s gone,” I say. I glance over at Kellan and Tyson, still absorbed in their game of Pac-Man. “We can’t get onto Facebook anymore.”

Josh leans into the table. “Really? How’d that happen?”

“Tonight, fifteen years from now, I cancel my account,” I say. “Originally, I was just going to change my password, but then the whole thing disappeared like it was never there.”

Josh leans back, obviously shocked by the news.

“Now it’s your turn,” I say.

He places both hands on the table. His face is flushing from his cheeks to his ears.

“Just say it, Josh.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future,” he says. “And I guess neither of us will now. But I’ve decided not to be with Sydney.”

I don’t know how to respond.

“It never felt right,” he continues, and then he looks at me. “She wasn’t the one.”

A blue plastic ball smacks the side of Josh’s head. We both look over at the ball pit. Kellan’s already in there, and Tyson is pushing himself through the entrance in the netting.

After he dives in, Tyson shouts, “Come on! Less talking, more ball-pitting!”

Kellan tosses a bunch of the rainbow-colored balls into the air.

Josh looks at me and we both smile. We head over and look through the mesh. Kellan and Tyson are stretched out, hogging the area beneath the slides. I go in first, sinking down to my knees, and Josh tumbles in after me. The balls rise and shift around us, covering us up to our chests.

Kellan tosses me a yellow ball and I catch it.

“When did we take that picture of the four of us in here?” she asks.

I think about my copy of that photo, currently ripped in pieces in my journal. One day I’ll tape it back together.

“Last year,” Tyson says. “I’ve still got mine in my locker.”

“Me too,” Josh says. He chucks an orange ball at Tyson’s chest.

Kellan tosses another yellow ball at me. I catch it and throw it to Tyson, then lower my arm back into the pit. As I do, my pinky finger touches the side of Josh’s hand. I’m about to pull it away, but instead I leave my hand where it is.