The day started off relatively normal, I had my usual breakfast, an egg McMuffin with a hash brown on the side. I went to school and attended periods one through five. I would have made it to six but I was busy being trapped in the year 2348, during the middle of the apocalypse. It was around this time I very much regretted picking up that stupid looking necklace I found at that stupid looking beach.
I wasn't even supposed to be there, my dad had pretty much just grounded me when he saw my grades. Not like I could necessarily blame him either; they had slipped pretty significantly. This would surprise some people but I used to be a pretty solid student, and by pretty solid I mean top of my class solid, solid like the kid everyone knew would be an astronaut or cure a disease or two. I used to be a lot of things actually, most of them went away after my mom died.
I used to be happy, hence the nickname my dad gave it to me when I was little since he would always say my eyes would "shine" when I smiled. I used to be a member of a family, after my mom passed my dad became a drunk, my sister moved out and our dog died. Sometimes listing the things I used to be overwhelms me in a way, like I'm now some shadow of the person I used to be. Every now and then to make myself feel better I remind myself of the things that I still am - relentless, persistent and tenacious.
Starting to see a common theme here? In other words, when I have my mind set on something, I don't let anyone or anything get in my way. This is why, regardless of my dad's yelling and restrictions, I was gonna be at the beach that night. I had to be, it was the party of the year, kids from the valley, kids from the hills and most importantly, Dylan Wiley would be there.
Dylan was my childhood best friend, my only friend for that matter until he kinda sorta confessed his love for me freshman year. It weirded me out but I guess it wasn't out of the blue. We did everything together - played video games, watched movies and even kissed from time to time. I never should have led him on like that, I really had no intention of being with him or really anyone.
This is gonna sound really bad but the thrill of being involved with him both as a friend and a situation is one of the only things that really gravitated me to him, like we could put a boundary between us that kept things platonic but whenever I needed some spice to my life I could cross it at will and put it right back - yeah, I know I sound like an asshole. He didn't see it that way, in fact, the complete opposite. He told me he'd been in love with me since the day we had our "wedding" at recess in fourth grade, since the cold Halloween nights we'd spend trick or treating together, since the day he met me when we were only seven years old. He told me he'd loved me for his entire life, I broke his heart.
I told him he couldn't love me and that I would never see him this way, harsh I know and to be honest it probably sounded even worse in person considering it was only a week after my mom had passed, he was never good with timing. After crushing Dylan's heart, a lot of eventful things happened for me - I had a relationship or two, a depression or three and my class rank had dropped from one all the way to three hundred and one, hence why my dad grounded me.
The only good thing that came out of any of this was him eventually coming back in my life when I needed him most. We went to different schools, so it was only through text and video chat, but it was effective nevertheless. I was going through a rough patch and we reconnected, it was like he never even left. This time was different, no more weird tension, no more games and no more drama - just my best friend in the world being there for me. I think this is when I truly fell for him, when I finally realized what he saw in us all of these years. That night would be the first time I would see him in person since the night I turned him down, that was why I knew I had to be there and that was why I came up with my master plan.